Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
By Rev. Carol Harston
I confess how much I dread reading the morning news. I confess how averse I had become to commentary on audio recordings, suspicion over emails, sound bites from speeches, debates between voters, and varying poll numbers. I confess now how nervous I am for the future that lies ahead of us.
The air feels toxic as I wonder what comes after Election Day. I confess my inability to even find hope for unity now that the presidential race has ended.
As one soul that is worn down and weary, I stand in need of some ritual cleansing from all this mess. I need a religious rite through which I confess my implicit participation in division, name the hopelessness in which I have dwelled, and receive the good news of something better. I need a path forward where I can love my neighbor whose vote was cast for the other candidate.
I need to believe again in a God who does not wear down the way that I do.
I need to hear again of a hope that does not depend on a political outcome.
I need to receive again a truth that is more powerful and eternal than any campaign promise.
I need the Church to remind me that God has a larger project at work that thrives most in the mess. As Walter Brueggemann writes in Prophetic Imagination, I need people who embody the truth that, “God does not quit even when the evidence warrants his quitting.”
I feel desperate about losing this hopelessness for it is into this mess that I am about to bring new life. In a few weeks, our baby boy will leave the safety of the womb and begin this human adventure. He will be born into a brotherhood with two older brothers ready to receive him. But more importantly, he will be born into the brotherhood and sisterhood of the Body of Christ. It will be upon this Body of Christ that he will have to depend when he, too, is weary and worn down.
He will come whether or not I feel cleansed, forgiven, or hopeful. God does not wait for us to be ready. God does not wait until elections end and politics resolve. God interrupts our lives with responsibility bestowed.
This new life will come with demands of his own…
Hold me close.
Sing me a hymn.
Embody a love that endures long nights and will not quit.
Bless my life with gentle words of courage that can last.
Recognize the divine revelation within me.
See the care of me as stewardship rather than ownership.
Redefine productivity to include nurturing the life of another.
Teach me that I can trust humanity to provide for fragile ones like me.
Tell me that you still believe this human project is worth all its costs.
Perhaps the cleansing I seek is already available to me, right there in the demands this new life will make. Perhaps it is not that I must wait for the cleansing to happen to me but that I must participate in redemption to believe, again, in the Redeemer.
Can I still believe it’s all possible? I must. The need is too great. This life is too beautiful. Our God is too relentless.
Carol Harston is living in Durham, N.C., for one year while her husband participates in a Duke Orthopedic Fellowship. Carol and Drew have two boys and are expecting their third boy due this Thanksgiving. Carol will return to Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., in fall 2017 to serve as Associate Pastor of Faith Formation and Congregational Engagement.
Note: The views expressed here in columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
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