Sometimes the weight of the urgently important things in the world feels crushing. Terrorism, bombings, racism, war, refugees, xenophobia, hateful rhetoric, closed borders, trials, protests, police brutality, the list goes on and on.
And I’m not writing about any of them.
It’s not that I don’t care about them, not at all. But I’m having trouble writing lately (evidenced by my infrequent postings), even when I have the time and energy. And it feels more possible to write somewhat lighter pieces about somewhat lighter things. But given all that’s going on in the world, I wanted to explain why.
Sometimes, all you can do to resist evil is to refuse to let it have power over you. To refuse to be terrorized, refuse to be scandalized, reject the glamor of evil and refuse to be mastered by sin. To resist by keeping your gaze and your mind and your heart fixed upon the ordinary things, the little blessings and challenges and puzzles and joys. And as a Catholic theologian, some of those blessings and challenges and puzzles and joys are about the church; so I may be doing a little blogging about those things, during this season of waiting for the coming and coming-again of Christ.
PS – I’m a little more vocal (and “re”-vocal) about these weightier matters on Twitter, so you might follow me there if that’s what you’re after.