Osler's Razor

So much faith revealed in a funk song!

Teachers keep on teachin'
Preachers keep on preachin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long
Oh no...

I'm so glad that he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin'
Till I reach my highest ground...Whew!
Till I reach my highest ground
No one's gonna bring me down
Oh no
Till I reach my highest ground
Don't you let nobody bring you down (they'll sho 'nuff try)
God is gonna show you higher ground
He's the only friend you have around

In Minnesota, there is water everywhere.  The snow that has built up for months (there is still some in my yard) is finally melting off, and it is filling up the low places.

When I heard this song yesterday, it fit what was happening outside.  I could imagine what might happen in a serious flood-- people fleeing to the higher ground.

You go there instinctively; people grab what they can and walk uphill.  When the metaphorical waters rise, people do that same thing, but the higher ground is God, regardless of what people often believed before.  I saw it this month in the wake of the crises in Boston and West, Texas... people of different faiths walking together to that higher ground.

Part of the power of that image-- of the people taking refuge in the higher ground-- is that it is shared space, where we have to learn to live together.  Sometimes, that is our weakness.

The other challenge is this:  Realizing that the narrow space at the top of the hill, that sanctuary, is not all of God's Kingdom.  All of it is-- the flooded places, the roiling waters, the displaced people themselves-- and none of us know how it all fits together.  How humbling!  And then the waters recede...