It has been a tough week for our world. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is devastating and puts our whole world at risk. Climate reports show that the Earth is warming faster than anticipated. Trans kids and their parents are threatened by targeting laws in Texas. The pandemic, while subsiding in most places, rages on in others like Hong Kong.

Our hearts break for people fleeing the bombed streets of Kyiv with their children and pets. Prayers go out for the safety of those whose homes, schools, and museums have been destroyed. We are anxious about the future of humanity and the planet and uncertain if things will indeed be well.

This month’s Soul Matters theme- Renewing Faith- may seem ill-timed; these are not hopeful times. If faith is the simple belief in the assurance of a positive outcome, then this virtue is naive. If faith is the idea that some people are blessed and others are not, then it is cruel. But if by faith we mean something else- living more fully our values and commitments, for instance- then it is indeed a way of being we need to embody more ever.

Love and courage show up in dark places again and again. They are the light we seek. We have seen this in acts of resistance and selfless acts of heroism sprouting everywhere from Russian citizens risking arrest to protest their government’s actions to teachers and clergy in Texas refusing to follow discriminatory laws.  We have seen it in the people who have poured into the streets and shown up to work for climate justice again and again. We have seen it in the small kindnesses given and received from stranger to stranger over the past two pandemic years that continue to be extended in hospitals, prisons, schools, and our own most intimate relationships. None of these alone can save the world; but they can help us find meaning, purpose, and connection- and even hope. They can remind us that life is still worth fighting for when we feel like we have failed as a species and are at risk of losing it all. They can spark a fire of goodness that spreads far and wide.

So perhaps our call this month is to renew faith not by turning a blind eye to despair, but by showing up in the places where love and courage are most needed. We renew faith for others by being that glimmer of light- that holy spark- we are all seeking. We renew faith for the world by joining our small efforts with others to create a flood of power that can drown out the raucous shouts of the loudest tyrants.

With prayers for those most at risk in this time,  may we deepen our commitment to love the world and one another– truly and faithfully.

In faith,
Rev. Terri