A Little Faith in what I can’t See

The following Paragraph is from a letter from an anonymous parishioner who felt put upon by
the troubles of the world.
SHE: “Oh write back.” “Tell me wonderful, esoteric mysteries that hardly anyone knows
about.” “Tell me there’s a heaven.” “Tell me that after this long road there is peace and relief,
and a joy that it is all over now.” “Tell me the end is not just a dark, dank hole and they throw
the dirt on you and then bury you.” “Tell me suffering is not just the random uncaringness of a
sick God.” “Remind me how wonderful life before I took on all these responsibilities really
was.” “Please say something kind.”
NOTE: I actually connected with this person over the phone amidst this period of time. I
remember being very challenged at a Pastoral level. Here is my written response. You can tell
me how I did.
ME: “Offer a life beyond this one and make it a time of peace and rest.”
“Oh, well that is a task isn’t it?”
Ok…I feel your yearning, and can at least say this.”
“The arc of life on earth, if not the broader universe, has been towards complexity and
consciousness. But that trend is vulnerable, fragile even.
Given that the humans, and you personally being here is so slim as to make our very existences a
real miracle.”
“So, given that… ask yourself; seriously ask yourself…
For all the imperfection of this world. Given all the death, and suffering, all the knees that
increasingly will creek, and gutters that eventually will all leak, is it really more likely that all of
the whims and joys we experience came about by a random process that had no agenda or
purpose.”
“I mean, is it really more likely that the joy of sunsets, kisses, and love and the empathy that lies
dormant in our hearts, is really more likely to have no intention behind it, than have one?”
“Ask yourself, putting aside all the holes in the dogma of all the traditional religion; do you
really think that there is not some unknowable force that is rooting for consciousness and life
itself?”
“That is at least a fair question, to if not completely trust in, at least have some hope that
perhaps a force that is not perfect or all powerful, but a force and an ally all the same promoting
life.”
“We may not be able to speak about what such a divine consciousness is like.”
“I would probably argue that we can’t.”
“We may not be able to speak conclusively that such a force exists.”
“I would be even bolder in saying that clearly, we can’t.”