This is What I Try to Do

I bookmarked this quote by the great poet Hafiz on Inward/Outward back in March. For some reason as I saw it today it jumped out at me:

I wish I could show you
when you are lonely
or in darkness
the astonishing light
of your own being.

Perhaps it is the power of the simple thought in those 20 words. Hafiz was able to see the inner light that God placed in each of us at creation. We get so caught up in the idea of original sin and the fallenness of humanity that we miss out on the greatness of God's creation in humanity.

Yes, sin gets in the way. But it does not- cannot- get rid of the light that was there when God saw humans and said:

It is very good!

So one of the tasks of ministry is to try in whatever ways we can to show the that astonishing light of the other's being hidden behind the sin. Ministry is a spiritual act. Ministry is the ability to reach out with that news that we are accepted as we are by the Creator of the Universe.

I do my ministry as those of you who are regulars here know in a counseling room. Most specifically in a group room with my colleague and 5-9 others. I am struck more often than not by the deep paradox of Hafiz's words. The pain and destruction of addiction is often so far-reaching that we have a hard time seeing the good in ourselves or others. One of the tasks in that group room day in and day out is to shine a light through the darkness and connect with that inner being where there is an astonishing light ready to be seen.

Yes it is ministry though I seldom mention God. Ministry is far too important- the healing and freedom that it can bring- to keep it enslaved to certain words or places. Mine is not to determine how God will work and uplift others. All I can do in many times and places is to do what I am called to do. The rest is God's.

As I was typing this the words of The Troubadour Dylan came on iTunes with one of his most powerful songs, Chimes of Freedom. The tolling of these chimes, he tells us, is for all of us caught in good and bad and everything in between. They are:

Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

The chimes of freedom are alive and well. Let them ring- let them ring!