i sent you

Past the seeker as he prayed, came the crippled, the despairing and the broken.  His heart breaking at the injustice, the man stood before God and cried out with great passion, “Great God, how am I to believe in your loving benevolence when you see such suffering in the world and yet do nothing to stop it?” 

God replied, “ I did do something. I sent you.”

(Sufi teaching)

“I sent you.”

Last week we all heard the stories about random strangers walking into K-Mart and Walmart and paying off  lay-away balances.  Or the woman who stood in the toy aisle at Target and handed out fifty dollar bills; the man dressed up as Santa handing out hundred dollar bills and the person in the Starbucks drive-through who handed the clerk five hundred dollars and told her it was to pay for as many people’s orders as it would pay for that day.   

And that’s only the stuff we heard about.  The stuff that made the news and went viral. 

Behind those front page stories are the untold stories of hundreds of thousands (and more) small, random acts of kindness.

Because there are those who remember our most important reason for being here. 

To love each other and take care of each other.
Those who witness the despair and the broken, and more than just talking about it,
do something about it. 

In big ways and small ways – it doesn’t matter. 

With money or without.

What matters is the intention.
And the action.
Most importantly, the extended wide open heart behind the action.

The opportunity to put love (in whatever form) where it is most needed. 

Because we belong to each other.

And we need to take care of each other.

Because even a loving and benevolent God can’t be everywhere and do everything on His own. 

He (unlike we) not only knows that, but graciously accepts it. 

Which is why he sent us.

To fill in the gaps, patch the holes and finish the sentences for each other when it is most needed.  

So no-one has to do this thing called life alone.

Or feel alone - bereft.

So we all have someone to witness us, in our joy and in our sorrows.
So that we, having been witnessed ourselves, can witness others.

In ancient tradtition, it is taught that we experience (first hand)  that which we are to heal in ourselves  – all the barricades we’ve built that have hardened our hearts and keep us from living wide open love so that we can then “pay it forward” -  using our own experiences to extend compassion, hope and healing to others. 

Not bemoan our lot in life.

Or complain about all the pain and suffering in the world.
Neither of which changes anything and only puts even more suffering (albeit our own) out in the world.
 

“Great God, how am I to believe in your loving benevolence when you see such suffering in the world and yet do nothing to stop it?” 

And God, smiling upon us as He takes our hand patiently explains, “I did do something. I sent you.”

That's what I'm thinking about today.