Blessed are the Socially Distant
An upside down world triggers all our darkest fears about ourselves and others. But the Way of Jesus offers the deepest madness: the upside down world is blessed.
Blessed are the socially distant,
They have the keys to God’s way.
Blessed are those who have lost what they love,
Comfort is near and present.
Blessed are the undemanding, the understocked shelves,
The fruitfulness of nature is their birthright.
Blessed are those starved for a just and good world,
Their emptiness is the space for new life.
Blessed are those without the right answers,
They are free from judgment.
Blessed are those undefended from chaotic times,
Their openness is where they meet God.
Blessed are the restful in the midst of fear,
They are recognizable as image-bearers of the Creator.
Blessed are those who are naive and trusting and foolish and self-quarantined for the sake of others,
God’s good world is theirs for enjoying.
You are blessed when your every move feels crazy, when nothing you do stacks up, when you can’t earn your way into other people’s good graces, when every word on social media feels like a judgment on your feelings, when you can’t sometimes breathe because you don’t know how to be a good neighbor or even a good sport in these troubling times.
When you are here, in the midst of all that is unknown, you are blessed.
You, the blessed ones—
You, those stepping back from modernity’s machine,
You are creation’s preservative.
Your strangeness, aloneness, weakness, and presentness without defense makes God’s good world and its inhabitants last.
It is easy to feel shame and guilt. But don’t.
Joy beyond circumstances, the kind that only comes from God’s good ways, is here for the tasting. As the world of performance and fear breaks down around us, God’s world, planted deep beneath the soil, is breaking through.
Let’s go.
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