searching for shalom

ann weems, whom i have actually met, wrote a resource entitled 'searching for shalom' back in 1991.

you know, we're still searching! peace, justice, wholeness, awesome; we get little visions of it some days. this was a day when i actually had to look to find shalom....too many things, too much, and not enough. i even missed centering prayer...and who doesn't need to take time for prayer?!

so, here i am, 6 pm, having missed the ending of our after school program, finally sitting down to ponder; as i've said several times of late, 'just not enough days in the hour'. what an excuse!

so i turn to ann. she has been a great resource over the years. maybe that is why i love books so much; you can turn to them over and over again; sticky notes, dog-eared pages, highlighted sections. they become my best friends -- especially when i remember to turn back to them!

i shared a couple of writings from ann two weeks ago for a meeting. the following is one i hadn't yet shared, but it is useful, me thinks! see what you think....where does the spirit take you; what feels come to your senses?

i keep searching for shalom, drawing my water from one well after another --

but still i thirst for the shower of blessing that is shalom.

i yearn for life to be just and merciful and peaceful,

but streets are filled with daily deaths of spirit and of flesh . . .but no shalom.

i keep searching for shalom, away from crowds and commotion,

but peace and quiet don't blot the pain of broken hearts and broken bodies.

i keep searching for shalom, thinking perhaps i'll find it

in a quiet field of flowers or in star or sea or snow,

but still the innocent are trampled.

i keep searching for shalom, standing in holy places, sitting among saints.

surely in the sanctuary i will find shalom.

i keep searching for shalom, but holy places are not magic.

good works and printed prayers don't guarantee shalom.

beyond cathedral walls and above ethereal music, the blaring din of death persists.

back in the streets, the people walk in darkness.

i keep searching for shalom.

i have pursued and sought it.

have i looked in all the wrong places?

what is this bonding, this glue among us, this cohesiveness that holds us in the hope of shalom?

the longing won't die.

the hope keeps emerging like a new sprout that perseveres on the stump of a felled tree.

even in the daily barrage of obscenities some new star melts into my eyes

and the promise persists.

here in the darkness some new light stirs within me.

here in the streets i find shalom.

shalom lives not in the sanctuary, but in the streets . . . in chaos -- on a cross.

in the face of jesus is the peace that passes all understanding

the everlasting sabbath . . . shalom!

thanks for reading that with me...i needed this reminder, today, that peace is within reach. . . .