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The text was written by Roger Hutchison, author, illustrator, and Episcopal lay minister. If the good folks at FDD object, I'll remove the text image, but you can still read it at the FDD website here.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Do Not Be Afraid
I probably shouldn't do this, but today's reading from Forward Day by Day (a ministry of the Episcopal Church) is so very pertinent to this moment in time that I feel compelled to share it with my truckbuddies. I hope you will draw comfort and strength from it in the parlous state of the world today.
The text was written by Roger Hutchison, author, illustrator, and Episcopal lay minister. If the good folks at FDD object, I'll remove the text image, but you can still read it at the FDD website here.
The text was written by Roger Hutchison, author, illustrator, and Episcopal lay minister. If the good folks at FDD object, I'll remove the text image, but you can still read it at the FDD website here.
Labels:
Bible,
Episcopal Church,
Forward Day by Day,
fret not,
Jesus,
meditation
2 comments:
I don’t know why anyone would object to that post. I would only make an observation: the image of reaching out to an extended hand from the wreckage of a building may not fully capture the state of affairs we are experiencing today. The constant insane bombardment of all our values and life-supports have left many of us dazed and barely conscious, unable to reach out for help or reach towards those needing rescue. I for one, am feeling paralyzed and unable to direct my anger and frustration and grief in any meaningful way. I’m trying to recoup but I’m not terribly optimistic.
The good folks at FDD might object to a violation of their copyright; I'll clarify that sentence. They have a process of giving permission to reprint, but it takes six weeks, and I felt that my little "ministry" needed the quote today.
As to the rest, I totally understand and echo every word you said, Frank. We are living through a catastrophe that was until very recently quite unimaginable: the destruction and dismantling of our government, our nation, our way of life, and indeed of the whole liberal world order set up by the victors of the war against fascism in 1945. That comfortable, stable, predictable world we all grew up in is no more - and what is replacing it is horrific. I am afraid that things will get very much worse before they get better - it might even be that the scenes in Gaza will be repeated here in one place or another. Concentration camps are already being built, and more are planned. Congress and the courts are largely controlled by fanatics and billionaires who don't give a damn about democracy. Even major universities and major media companies are bending the knee and kissing the foot - how quickly they have succumbed, when they should have been the last to give in to tyranny.
And I could go on, but for me the image of the hand of Christ reaching into the wreckage is a very powerful and moving thing. Cf. Psalm 46. I know my faith is a quaint and laughable thing in some quarters - but it keeps me calm and sane, most of the time. And, I believe, in touch with the reality of the Goodness that rules above and beyond all our earthly wreckage - the Love that moves the stars.
I am not hopeful about the present state of affairs, and I really don't wish to live to see the end of our democracy. But through all the ups and downs of civilization, there must be hope and faith and love to carry us through. Otherwise, what is the point of carrying on? What are we living for? But answers will vary. I have mine, and that's enough. It has to be.
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