Finding Direction and Comfort

In these challenging times . . . As we chart our ways through uncertain waters . . . Look around at the dangers on the rise . . .

It’s almost impossible to be a writer and not turn to cliches these days. There’s a lot to be anxious and stressed out about. The future doesn’t feel very stable. There’s little predictability and not much reassurance that things are going well. I’ve long been comforted by Martin Luther King Jr.’s claim that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I must admit that it’s hard to make out the shape of that arc these days. The phrase itself was borrowed from an 1853 sermon by Unitarian minister Theodore Parker; eight years later the worst war on American soil erupted, bending the arc but at a terrible price.

One of the roles of faith is to remember that we’ve been here before. We’ve been the wandering Jews lost in the desert but fed manna to survive. We remember the disciples taken by surprise by the rush of Roman guards come to arrest our Messiah, who urged us to put away our swords. We tell stories of a young George Fox wandering England looking for spiritual teachers until all his “hopes in them and in all men were gone.” We survive by telling stories. We keep ourselves centered and calm by remembering others who found a path through uncertainty and assured us they were held up by a Comforter.

The storytelling continues.

Edward W. Wood Jr. tells his story as a World War II soldier whose military service was cut short on its first day by a debilitating injury that sent him home. The emotional impact sent him spiraling through decades of grief, as waves of shame overwhelmed him. He takes us through the slow process of finding “a narrative that healed my shame,” a path that brought him to Friends and to a public ministry against war.

A different war but a familiar path greeted Ronald Marullo, a married student with two young children, who faced a dilemma when he was faced with the draft in 1969. With the help of a Quaker counselor, he plumbed the depths of his own spirit to realize he was a conscientious objector and then traversed the sometimes infuriating and sometimes funny chain of governmental bureaucracy to obtain CO status. He credits his spirituality and reliance on the Holy Spirit for giving him the guidance during that time.

Challenges continue. Two articles—from Anthony Manousos and Greg Rolles—look at the very real dilemmas of protesting injustice today. Manousos’s article and a news piece relate stories of 20-something young Friends caught up in violence between police and protesters. Marshall Woodruff is recovering from what might be a lifelong physical injury, while Jacob Hoopes is looking at a very serious trial. The fog of protest, like the fog of war, can be confusing, and we need to continue to tell our stories and hold up one another through dark times.

At worship this past Sunday, a young visitor surprised us with a recitation of Psalm 23, one of the most familiar spiritual passages from the Old Testament. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. Three thousand years later, the song of a young herder still brings comfort.