Seeing in the Dark

Our country has just passed the toll of 500,000 deaths from Covid.  Last evening we watched a memorial event at the White House, which included a minute of silence for this sad and staggering milestone.  This morning I heard someone say that if we had a minute of silence for every person who has died for Covid, we would be silent for an entire year.Once again the somber moment reminded me that each of these lives was a huge loss to family, friends, and, beyond that, community and even the world.  People from all walks of lives, many of whom made a difference in other lives, are now gone.  I can't imagine what kind of loss it's been for our nation.  We often don't see the micro level when we talk about our nation, but it is the teachers, the business people in our community, our neighbors, thecashiers at the local supermarket, the pastors, the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers, thefirst responders - the list goes on and on - that make up our country.Søren Kierkegaard, a well-known Danish philosopher from the 19th century, once said: "Faith sees best in the dark", and certainly I can tell you that I have struggled to try to find meaning during this pandemic.  Lent seems to be all about the struggle for us to come to terms with our faith when there is so much suffering and pain in the hearts of so many.  Lots of people live with dogmas and formulas, like mechanical tools that pop out clichés and easy answers. I don't find this satisfying and sometimes even annoying.Kierkegaard also said that we must take "a leap of faith", where we make a commitment despite the fact that we have no complete answers as to why this is happening and our faith at times can be shaky.  What we do have is a response of redemption and reconstruction of life.  The Christian narrative is one of change, transformation, and redemption.  It was Jesus' mission; it is our mission.MEH