We are not forsaken


I know. It's been a long time since I've written here. Life has been pretty intense, and a lot of the things that have happened I can't write publicly about. Anyway, I wrote this to day in an e-mail to friends. It's about a vocal ministry that came to me today in Quaker Meeting.

I’m sitting in my other favorite coffee house, Spot Coffee, which is just a block from the Meeting House.

Ended up with a vocal ministry today. It was kind of a surprise to me. For some reason at the 15 minute break when the kids leave I had an inclination to go to the library and pick up a Bible, to read passages from Isaiah 58, which had been the foundation of a sermon that was given by Rev. Karen Carter at the Clergy Summit on Violence last November — the event that drew me into getting involved with the community forums on violence.

I don’t know exactly what it was about those passages, but suddenly I was flashing on the time, back in 1979, following the devastating results of the custody trial -- when I lost my daughter -- and I would awaken -- morning after morning after morning after morning -- with the words “I will not forsake you; I will NOT forsake you” pounding in my head.

It was a time of great darkness and great suffering for me. A time when the cruel were in power and injustice prevailed. I did feel utterly forsaken then. What happened should not have happened — not to me, and especially not to my daughter, who was only seven at the time.

But here I am, 28 years later, and a few days ago on an amazingly beautiful early spring day I was walking around Cobbs’ Hill Reservoir and bursting with joy just to be alive.

I said, “Sometimes we have to live for a long time with overwhelming darkness. But still, we are not forsaken.”

Posted: Sun - March 25, 2007 at 11:50 PM          

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