In Meeting for Worship, I have always focused my meditations on my life: my values and my fidelity to them; my relationships with others and with society as a whole; my explorations of what I perceive as a holy spirit.
Until today.
Today, here, there appears the opportunity to try to imagine, and to understand, the lives and perspectives of others. A sixth grader in an urban middle school with a very different home life than mine, seeking his or her place in the world. A refugee seeking safety and freedom for his family, praying the boat from Turkey to the Greek Island of Lesbos doesn’t capsize and send them to their deaths. A frustrated and angry American voter, trying to figure out the best thing to do for the nation in this election year.
Today I see that it means nothing to perceive myself as striving to understand and serve God – indeed, it would mean nothing to “be holy” – without constant striving for compassion.
