“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30
“My grievance with contemporary society is with its decrepitude. There are few towering pleasures to allure me, almost no beauty to bewitch me, nothing erotic to arouse me, no intellectual circles or positions to challenge or provoke me, no burgeoning philosophies or theologies and no new art to catch my attention or engage my mind, no arousing political, social, or religious movements to stimulate or excite me. There are no free men to lead me. No saints to inspire me. No sinners sinful enough to either impress me or share my plight. No one human enough to validate the “going” lifestyle. It is hard to linger in that dull world without being dulled.
I stake the future on the few humble and hearty lovers who seek God passionately in the marvelous, messy world of redeemed and related activities that lie in front of our noses.”
William McNamara in The Human Adventure (Garden City: Image, 1976) 9; and Mystical Passion (New York: Paulist Press, 1979) 3; as cited by Eugene Peterson in Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best (Downers Grove: IVP, 2009) 13-14.
If there’s one thing about which Americans (and the watching world) agree during this season of political propaganda, it’s that we are not thrilled about our options. That said, I stand with McNamara who stakes our future on “the few humble and hearty lovers who seek God passionately in the marvelous, messy world of redeemed and related activities that lie in front of our noses.” Let’s be those folks today, generous to stand in the gap on behalf of this land while it seems like so much around us is falling apart.
God help us be generous in the little things today, in seemingly insignificant settings where no one is watching or no one may ever notice. Help us do this as we love and seek you passionately.