Dear friends,
It seems as though almost every week a horrible tragedy happens, and I search for something meaningful and comforting to write in a pastoral letter. This week it happened again…
Fourteen people were viciously murdered in a mass shooting in California. Around each of them, there is a community of family and friends who are grieving. Each of the fourteen had gifts to offer our world, and our world is poorer today because we have lost them.
A husband and wife together perpetrated this horrific crime. Their motives are unclear; the FBI is investigating it as a terrorist attack.
This mass shooting comes on the heels of an attack last week on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, in which three people were killed. If the definition of a terrorist attack is one designed to evoke terror, then last week’s shooting was also terrorism.
What does it mean to live in a world that feels so terrifying? What do we do?
This morning, I read a Facebook post by my friend and spiritual director, Rev. Susie Allen. She quoted a Cherokee story I had heard before. I needed to hear again. Thank you to Susie for this inspiration:
One evening an elder Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us. One is Fear. It carries anxiety, concern, uncertainty, hesitancy, indecision and inaction. The other is Faith. It brings calm, conviction, confidence, enthusiasm, decisiveness, excitement and action.” The grandson thought about it for a moment and then meekly asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee replied, “The one you feed.”
Both of the wolves inside us are real. Our fear is real, and so is our faith. We can acknowledge our fear without feeding it. We can listen to our fear without allowing it to control us.
Instead, we can choose to feed the wolf of faith. We can seek comfort in community. We can pray for courage and wisdom. We can refuse to fall into the trap of scapegoating entire communities. We can reach out to seek understanding between faith traditions. We can hold fast to our conviction that each person is God’s beloved.
In our prayers, in our conversations, in our actions, may we feed the wolf of faith.
Peace, Debbie