Passing along a good one <3
Sometimes I write from my thoughts and heart. Sometimes I just have the impression that what someone else has written needs to be shared.
Today, I am passing along something I saw yesterday on Instagram that ministered to me. It is from an account named “Every Moment Holy”. Or @everymomentholy, to speak in Insta language.
This site shares liturgies for, you guessed, the every day, mundane life we live.
The one that caught my eye yesterday was entitled:
A Liturgy for those Flooded by Too Much Information
By Douglas McKelvey
In a world so wired and interconnected, our anxious hearts are pummeled by an endless barrage of troubling news.
We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord, than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice than we can engage in with compassion.
But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted by such news of cruelty and terror and war.
You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed. You carried the full weight of the suffering of a broken world when you hung upon the cross, and you carry it still.
When the cacophony of universal distress unsettles us, remind us that we are but small and finite creatures, never designed to carry the vast abstractions of great burdens, for our arms are too short and our strength is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and redemption are your great labors.
Guard us then from shutting down our empathy or walling off our hearts because of the glut of unactionable misery that floods our awareness.
You have many children in many places around this globe. Move each of our hearts to compassionately respond to those needs that intersect our actual lives, that in all places your body might be actively addressing the pain and brokenness of this world, each of us liberated and empowered by your Spirit to fulfill the small part of your redemptive work assigned to us.
From a Liturgy for This Flooded by Too Much Information found in Ever Moment Holy, Volume 1
This spoke so relevantly to me.
Often I feel so overwhelmed from the reports coming in from the news and from individuals sharing a current crisis, the angry fighting amongst various sides of whatever issue is the hot one at the moment, the tradegys and threats near and abroad…the “cacophony” as the author of this liturgy puts it.
And yes, I feel the pull to just shut down. I can’t muster up any more compassion and so I don’t. I turn to a distraction or eat or take a nap. I look for something to make me feel better and then I feel guilty for being so cold hearted.
This liturgy has given me a reminder that I was not meant to carry everything for everyone. But I am made to carry what is assigned to me.
The things that are right in front of me, the things I am called to be involved in are where I am called to spend my energy. I need to be strong and courageous in the situations where I can make a difference. I can also pray for others to rise up in situations where I cannot have impact, but I have to release the burden of feeling everything for everyone, everywhere.
It is a reminder that I am small. I can do some things, but not everything. I have to take in information with the understanding of my finite existence. And in this mindset, I am able to seek wisdom for what I am called to do and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to help me do it.
This is not a pass on caring and acting for righteousness and justice and peace. This is a reminder that we live in limited time, space and ability and were not meant to fix everything around the globe.
A beautiful thought and a great reminder for all of us, because we surely all are being flooded with too much information daily.
Blessings friends.
You are deeply loved; therefore go and love deeply <3