Editor’s note: This Lent season, Bread Blog is running a series of devotionals written by staff, alumni, and friends of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
By Rev. Ruth T. West
Some of us were silent too long.
Some of us wanted to remain in bubbles of ignorance and bliss, wanting so desperately to be found correct in our assumptions that the truth that would prevail would be God’s truth.
And when the noise died down, when the dust of humanity’s ugliness dissipated – many of us were devastated. As that dust settles, we vow to be Silence no more. Our very hearts have been torn open as we witnessed the fallout of uncompromised selfishness and greed.
So we turn to God, having gathered the faithful. We rise from the ashes of hatred and bigotry, anxiety and oppression, grasping the hand of another who bears the sign of the cross. We mobilize our faith lest the world wonder if our God is real. We insist on being free of constraint or constriction as we fast from the unseeing, unknowing, unhearing ways of our previous inadequate action.
And we are even now, especially now, returning our hearts to God. We are standing with the poor, the disenfranchised, the belittled and abused, and the voiceless. And we are convicted that we must do so now, before we become dust again.
Rev. Ruth T. West is the program manager for advanced pastoral studies at the San Franciso Theological Seminary.
