Monday 23 March

It's Day 8 and being confined to the house feels more challenging when it's pouring with rain outside. I don't know, perhaps it's a mercy since it discourages most normal people from being out and about. But for me, it makes the house feel more restrictive somehow. It's been raining the entire day and the forecast is for rain all week.

So now, not only am I checking my phone for news updates, social media tidbits and for podcasts to listen to, but for weather forecasts too. I don't know about you, but the temptation to be constantly checking my device is wearisome and drains me of positive energy with which to engage the day. I am realising that I need to be more disciplined than ever about keeping margins of 'disconnect time' to safeguard sanity and relate well with the rest of the family. While being in crisis mode gives us the illusion that more information will help us, often the opposite is true.

This liturgy from Every Moment Holy - only slightly modified - is so very appropriate for these days:

A Liturgy for Those Flooded by too much Information

--by Douglas McKelvey

In a world so wired and interconnected,

our anxious hearts are pummelled by

an endless barrage of troubling news.

We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord,

than we can rightly consider,

of more suffering and scandal

than we can respond to, of more

hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice

than we can engage with compassion.

But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted

by such news of [Corona] and terror and war.

You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed.

You carried the full weight of the suffering

of a broken world when you hung upon

the cross, and you carry it still.

When the cacophony of universal distress

unsettles us, remind us that we are but small

and finite creatures, never designed to carry

the vast abstractions of great burdens,

for our arms are too short and our strength

is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and

redemption, are your great labours.

And yes, it is your good pleasure to accomplish

such works through your people,

but you have never asked any one of us 

to undertake more than your grace

will enable us to fulfil.

Guard us then from shutting down our empathy

or walling off our hearts because of the flit of

unactionable misery that floods our awareness.

You have many children in many places

around this globe. Move each of our hearts

to compassionately respond to those needs

that intersect our actual lives, that in all places

your body might be actively addressing

the pain and brokenness of this world,

each of us liberated and empowered by

your Spirit to fulfil the small part

of your redemptive work assigned to us.

Give us discernment

in the face of troubling news reports.

Give us discernment

to know when to pray,

when to speak out,

when to act,

and when to simply

shut off our screens

and our devices,

and to sit quietly

in your presence,

casting the burdens of this world

upon the strong shoulders

of the One who

alone

is able to bear them up.

Amen.