Turning the Corner

We never know what is around a corner. I marvel every time I recall the bliss of Christmas 2019, spent in Milwaukee with our daughter. I think we may have heard one news report about something called a coronavirus that was speculated to have emerged in a Chinese marketplace, a jump from the animal kingdom to humans. It all seemed far-fetched, some type of propaganda and news hype that would surely fade into oblivion with all the rest. Oh, the bliss of ignorance!

And then, around the “corner” in March 2020, we were aware of cases in the US and people dying from lung suffocation due to the virus. And, what we thought would be over by Easter was rushing like a tsunami throughout the world, overwhelming everyone in its path. Vacations were canceled. Businesses shut down, some never to recover. Around the next corner, people we knew close to home died and hospitals and healthcare staff were hard hit with the shock, overload of desperate patients, distraught families. Society in general was reeling with grief, fear, anger, weariness and the growing pathos of it all mixed with the “false” news complaints and resistance of masks and vaccines.

Around the next corner came more of the same, but with new variants—but also vaccines. Like many of earth’s diseases before, this one began to have treatment plans and even some immunity from the worst outcomes of the virus. Hopefully, it will go the way of polio, smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and other controlled and managed diseases. That is what we have been hoping is around the next corner. But we rounded other corners that brought immense human suffering into plain view on our TVs and phones—fires, floods and wars.

Whenever we round a corner, we leave behind a lot. It lies in our memories like stones on a path. We can go back there and recall—even take on the fear and the dread of what has transpired until it weighs us down and makes it impossible to move forward positively. We carry yesterday’s griefs in our loins, in our very tissues. Someone has said that every sorrow has a zip code some place in our bodies. So, what do we do with it all? Ignore it and hope it will go away seems to be a popular option. Cover it up with careless living or super ambitious work. But the deep place in our being where it resides will speak up, sometimes in chronic illness or in acute crises.

It needs attention, and that is where the ancient spiritual formation practices come to our rescue. We cannot always be in the safety of a counselor’s office—and many people cannot afford it. No matter how much time we spend in healthcare facilities, the root of the problem is not addressed by medications and treatments alone, though the symptoms may be relieved. As much as we need to care for our bodies, we need to care for our souls—that inner being that we received from God at our birth and through which we can know God as more than an idea. A healed soul soothes the rattled psyche and makes possible the restoration of health for our bodies and peace for our lives.

So, I invite you to turn another corner and give your soul a daily “spa treatment.” Perhaps you have ignored it too long. For we who know ourselves as Christians, we have been discipled to undergird our lives with Bible study and Sunday School, Worship, Christian Music, Missions and Ministry. In my Protestant tradition, though, I was not made aware in my early faith development of other life practices that could enable me to open to the Spirit of God more fully. Our Savor the Sacred website exists to introduce Christians and other seekers to spiritual habits we can weave into our lives that can expand our spiritual consciousness of God’s Love.

With COVID less of a threat and with great desire to heal from the effects of isolation, job changes, anxiety, as well as to gather strength for the daily news of other world threats, the first practice I would recommend is to read Scripture differently. Read it from your heart. Read it as a “place” to meet God, rather than simply learn about Him. Read it especially as a place to enter into communion with Jesus, who is the main character in the Bible. From beginning to end, everything points to the Messiah who would come, has come and is ever coming to us as we learn to open our souls to Him as more than an intellectual concept.

Approach Scripture from the stance of one who has been invited into eternal communion with the Creator and Savior of the universe. Let the Spirit of Christ speak to you through the pages of the Bible and Christian literature. Listen for His voice in all the places you go, with all the people you interact, in all that surrounds you in nature, art and music. He is always speaking. As Jesus said, “Let those who have ears to hear, hear.” In other words, listen up! God is near, nearer than your latest breath.

And one more thing. Actually, this is the most important thing. I urge you to turn the corner away from existential fear and doubt of God and let yourself relax into Divine Love which is shown in glimmers in the Old Testament but shines brightly through Jesus. While the roots of Christian faith reach back into the Old Testament, we are citizens of a new realm of faith in which God has been revealed fully through the Christ—His teachings and His life. As He said, “Greater Love has no one than to lay down His life for his friends.” By the way, He has called us “friends.” We are not enemies. We are God’s creation, and He loves all that He has made. So, turn the corner into friendship with the Divine Lover of your soul, our Gentle Shepherd, Jesus Christ.