Awake!

You’ve been asleep for two hours and suddenly you’re wide away.  It must be close to daybreak you say to yourself, but the clock confirms that is it not even 2:00 in the morning yet!  Why do we lie awake thinking about the things we cannot change, or what we should have done or what remains on our “to do” list? It seems the worry list is endless.  Studies reveal that the five top things people worry about include money, health, aging, work stress, and weight gain. I admit to being a pretty average worrier, but lately I’ve been thinking about global problems.
 
Watching the evening news invites bedtime thinking about nuclear warheads and terrorists and refugees and global warming and hurricanes and people in need all over the world. Those thoughts certainly put those other worries in perspective. Over the course of the last few months I even said out loud how fortunate we are to live where we do; in a stable climate, with a small population, and lots of open space, where families still gather around a table and give thanks occasionally. A comfortable life can make one indifferent to the real pain of the world.  
 
As a minister, it upsets me when people claim that their community was saved from destruction, for example because they are people of faith and God protected them. It feels uneducated and unfaithful. And that is a problem. One school of religious thought says that if you just cast your cares on God, that God will take care of you. While I am not saying it is of no use to pray, I think leaving it all to God is a bit of a cop out and a set up for disappointment or disillusion about God.
 
Prayer changes the one who prays; changes and challenges. When you’ve laid out your heartfelt cares, the obvious next steps are more clearly seen. Often we can change the thing that causes us to lie awake. And often we can be part of a change that alters the outcome of larger things. While we may not change the refugee crisis, we can make a difference for one family. While we might not reverse global warming, we can redirect our use of resources in a responsible way. Though our voice may not be heard by the nation’s leaders, we do have a route to express our concerns to them.
 
A faith for today is more about being changed by prayer than about praying for change, yet this is a hard habit to break. It involves taking the lead, being the change, looking beyond yourself, and realizing that your good fortune may be just that. It is not that we’ve been protected by God, rather that we have a role, because of our safety to protect others. Faith and responsibility go hand in hand. So the next time you find yourself awake and worrying, imagine how you are called to put your faith in action, not for your own salvation, but that we together, might save the world.
 
Rev. Donna Tourneur ministers among the people of Trinity United Church.