This is not about gift cards or Hobbits; it’s really about Love.
Like many of us, I have felt the world and all its urgency too much with me. There’s no need to create another litany here of all the abuses of human dignity and collective well-being we bear witness to. The photo that accompanies this note shows a tangle of roots, limbs, branches and vines overgrowing a path; we can’t see whether the path continues beyond our line of sight. The small way forward might not be accessible to all. This photo could be a metaphor for the World of Church in 2025. There are lots of roots and branches thrust upon what was a well-defined path. Changes in demographics. Struggling pledge drives. What children and youth need since COVID. We could name more. How do we navigate, together, in an uncertain direction?
By Love.
My certainty stems from my faith in our Universalist heritage that affirms there is no being outside of the transcendent force of Love. And it echoes in some of my favorite novels, Like 1984. Fahrenheit 451. The Hunger Games. You might wonder, do you really need more dystopia in your life right now?? Fair question. But these stories are not just about human cruelty; they are about ordinary heroes - people who look like us - dropped into extraordinary circumstances. Like it or not.
One unlikely hero, a hobbit named Frodo Baggins, found himself on a quest that led him on paths like the one in this photo. He complained to his companion, the wizard Gandalf, “I wish this need not have happened in my lifetime.” Many of us would agree with that today. But Gandalf tells him that is not in our power to control. All we can do is decide what we will do with the time that’s been given to us.
So we must navigate this path, but we have tools to guide us - practices of spiritual leadership like discernment, faithful risking, and covenant, to guide us.
And gift cards. . .
