Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark.
—Rabindranath Tagore

Thought for the Day: Sometimes I become frustrated by the darkness in our world, unhealthy and forget that dawn is breaking. But the world is so polarized now. The far left and far right (in every country) have together stifled any chance of progress in healthcare, find education, government reform, global political and economic relationships, etc. Those of us who can always see the middle ground have been silenced by the outrageous voices on the fringes of politics and religion. And so we suffer through an even longer, darker night.

But then, just when it seems everything is pointless, God once more tugs at my heart. My faith in a God of loving justice and mercy begins to work through my being. I have tremendous faith in the one God of the Universe who is always working righteously: with fairness, justice, and universal love. For my agnostic friends out there, this doesn’t mean I expect God’s hand to reach down and fix everything in one sudden movement. For me, faith is much, much deeper than that. My faith is in an ordered universe in which everything is constantly moving towards love—slowly, sub atomically, quite naturally, but always in motion, and always towards unity.

We were made to love completely, always guided by God to enlightenment, always being led by God out of this long, dark night of our soul. There is an alarm ringing in the world right now. Do you hear it? More importantly, will you respond with love?

Prayer: Touch our hearts, Holy god, and melt away our hubris and pride. Let the real work of loving each other begin, so we might finally awaken from this too-long slumber, and be stunned into your light. Enlightened, at long last, for good, for all, for the good of us all. Amen.