"We need signs of salvation. We who are well off have been given signs of the cross among us like the poor and the handicapped. We have to enter their world on their terms to love them. And the beautiful thing we discover is that we become free. We come at last to know who we are by looking in their eyes."(R.Rohr "Radical Grace" p.311)
"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?" And so goes the chorus in a song from 1971 by the 5 Man Electric Band. The song of course points to the signs that keep us out, that tell us what not to do, that remind us of all that is wrong in the world.
Some folks read those signs as an indication of the apocalyptic return of Christ. I'd see them more of sign of our brokenness. I prefer to seek out signs of hope, or as Fr. Rohr said salvation. Glimpses of what can happen when God's grace is allowed to have free reign. They are hard to see. Our 24/7 news cycle does not want those shown. Political pundits hate them, bad for ratings.
Yet I have seen them, when I've encountered and spent time with folk who on the surface seem to have less than me, and yet are incredibly content. Who when they gaze back probably wonder, what's wrong with him? When I spend real time not just pity time with them, interacting with them on their terms, my perspective definitely changes. I don't leave saying there go I but by the grace of God, but instead believing I've been graced to spend time with that person.
There is an interesting verse in the song that I quoted at the beginning. It sums up for me quite well the sign of salvation that I often feel regularly, "I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine.
Wooo!"
Blessings,
Ed
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