These two quotes are separated in time by
about 400 years and come from two sources that might be seen as opposed. Martin
Luther was the 16th Century Reformer of the Christian Church while
Thomas Merton was a writer who found his vocation as a Trappist monk in the
mid-20th Century. (The Trappists remain a very strict order in the Roman
Catholic Church.) However, they appear to be on parallel tracks with their
understanding of how God will lead us.
In our present circumstance of pandemic
disease, emergency proclamations by governments, controversies over masks and
other preventive measures, and living in semi-quarantine, we probably all have
to say we’re tired of it. We wonder what is next. (Comets? “Murder hornets?”
Kangaroos on the loose in Florida?) None of us is sure where this is all going.
“I
know not the way” wrote Luther. “I
have no idea where I am going” wrote Merton. This sounds familiar to me. We
too are frustrated and tired and maybe cranky with the strangeness of what is
going on. What might make the difference is what follows in each man’s
statement.
“…
but well do I know my guide.” is Luther’s phrase. Merton was more of a poet
in what he wrote “Therefore will I trust you
always though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death.” I know that this
is what I’d want to do and I hope, by the grace of God, I will be able to.
Trusting God is not always easy. We always
want God to do what WE want God to do. To go along with God’s way can be tough…
but it is for the best. Maybe over time, we can be converted to being more of
what God wants us to be. However, don’t be surprised if you get cranky about it
now and again. Especially in quarantine and “social distancing.”
“I know not the
way God leads me, but well do I know my guide.”
“My Lord God, I
have no idea where I am going….
Therefore
will I trust you … I will not fear, for you are ever with me.”
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