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February 21, 2006
Interrupted Lives
Well, I apologize for my extended absence from my blog. But life has not been as usual for me in about a month. I was away on a Holy Land Pilgrimage that lasted about 11 days when you include travel. We stayed in hotels with very limited internet access. There is no wireless internet in the Holy Land at least none was available to us while we were there. I returned from the Holy Land Pilgrimage to discover the death of my father and this sort of sapped my writing energy and creativity for awhile.
There are a few things that are sort of floating in my mind as I write this blog. One is how quickly life can change and your routines can be interrupted. Many of us often go about planning our lives as if we have control over them but we are so subject to other forces that can impact us without warning.
I can hear in the background as I write, a report on the people in New Orleans who have no clue when their lives will ever return to normal, after Hurricane Katrina. Those of us who live in the United States are so blessed that we have lived relatively free of the ravages of war, disease, unclean water and the many natural catastrophes that others live with every day. These people have to expect and plan for interruptions that are the daily occurrences of their lives.
I witnessed the security checks in the Holy Land, the walled cities like Bethlehem, the gates that shut people out and shut people in, the need for clean water, the constant search for peace, the humiliation of being an openly oppressed people and I grieved for our fellow Christians that are treated as second-class citizens in their own homeland. I wanted to come back and simply get the pictures out of my mind and the voices that spoke out for peace but try as I may I can’t. And so I pray everyday that the God who loves us will help us to escape this cycle of hatred that separates people because of ethnicity. I ask that those of you who will read this blog will begin to pray for a just peace in the Holy Land, the place where Jesus walked and continues to cry out for Jerusalem.
Posted by Bishop at February 21, 2006 03:07 PM