Good morning…
I am prayerfully considering which book to teach in our living room next fall, in small groups, sitting six feet apart. With a short stack of possibilities, I read through piles of pages. At the right moment, I trust the Holy Spirit to nudge, “Sue, this is the one I have chosen.”
“When the sun goes down,” writes Barbara Brown Taylor in Learning to Walk In the Dark, one book I am considering for the fall, “it is time for another thing to happen, as the slower, quieter, and more tactile rhythms of nighttime open doors that remain shut during the day. No doubt there are frightening things behind some of those doors, but there are also stunning things. Eventually, with some practice, one learns that all these doors open on the same room. “I form light and create darkness,” God says through the prophet Isaiah, “I make weal and create woe.”
I put the book down and ask myself, what does “weal” mean? I google the word and find this definition. A sound, healthy, or prosperous state. A deep sense of well-being. So what is weal and woe? This expression refers to the good and bad times, the joys and sorrows, prosperity and misfortune. Used in a sentence I read this truth: “We all get our share of weal and woe in life.” God accepts full responsibility for each experience: I create light and darkness, happiness and sorrow. I, the Lord, do all of this (Isaiah 45:7, CEV).
Now I return to the book.
“The way most people talk about darkness, you would think that it came from a whole different deity, but no,” Barbara explains. “To be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up. To want a life with only half of these things in it is to want half a life, shutting the other half away where it will not interfere with one’s bright fantasies of the way things ought to be” (54-55).
Collectively this Coronavirus is certainly forcing us to face the weal and the woe in life. The overworked and the unemployed. The healthy helpers and the struggling sick. Treacherous tensions and compassionate connections. Joys and fears. Highs and lows. Day and night, night and day. Eventually, with some practice, we learn that all of these doors open on the same room, the spacious room where we intimately get to know the God who knows our name. And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness— secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name (Isaiah 45:3, NIV).
…Sue…
P.S. Looking for a women’s summer reading group?
Join us Wednesdays beginning May 20 at 10:00AM as we read Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler. Kirkus Reviews notes, “[Bowler] delivers raw emotion, realistic description, and candid assessments . . . An inspiring story of finding faith—in God, in family, and in oneself—while walking close to the Valley of the Shadow of Death.” For information, reading schedule, and Zoom link, please email Caroline Smith at fitzco1@comcast.net.
P.S. Looking for an online worship experience this morning?
8:30AM · Traditional Worship
9:45AM · Contemporary Worship
11:00AM · Traditional Worship
