Seeing with other eyes

Kent Nerburn

Most years I give myself a Christmas present and this year was no exception. What I did was to order three books from Amazon. Two are by Walter Brueggemann - the most important theologian/Bible scholar writing today, to my mind. The other is a little volume called Small Graces by Kent Nerburn. It is from the Nerburn that I want to quote here:

We must learn to see with other eyes. The world contains many paths, some exalted, some mundane. It is not our task to judge the worthiness of our path; it is our task to walk our path with worthiness. We have been blinded by the bright light of heroes and saints. We must learn to trust the small light we are given, and to value the light that we can shed into the lives of those around us.

It is so easy to get discouraged when we read the news, when we discover the atrocities that are being committed in our name, when we hear of hypocrisies and deceptions, when we are told what is really happening. It is hard to believe we can make a difference if ours is not the path of the exalted. But our job is to "walk our path with worthiness." It is also to see with other eyes. As we educate ourselves, as we open our own eyes, we add to the sum total of people who see - who are not blind to the reality of our world. We move our community and our world in the direction that is needed for there to be a critical mass of those who are waking up.

Don't give up! Don't think that what you do is too small! Every letter written to a congressperson, every dollar donated to an organization working for peace and justice is worthy and valuable. So do what you can do and don't fret about what you can't do. Let today be today and let us support each other as we move forward.