Ask the Savior

In these worst of times---certainly, the worldwide pandemic carries no equal---when ordinary life feels like an outer space aberration, I find myself seeking stability and solace, somewhere, anywhere.  I've sought refuge in typical places, from dependable people, and through countless machinations. Reminds me of "Searching," that venerable"oldie but goodie" standard.  "I've been searchin' searchin' searchin' every which- a-way... and like the Northwest Mountie, you know I'll bring her home someday."

The "her" would be a COVID-19 cure.  And while I don't doubt that science and good sense eventually will prevail, I have no way of guesstimating the month or year.  When we can secure and protect or at what cost this plague will extract remain the sustaining quandary.  "I don't know" will never be an acceptable response, no will "soon, I hope," of "in the near future."

"Where could I go, O where could I go
Seeking a refuge for my soul"
Needing a friend to save me in the end,
Where could I go but toe Lord?"

(I quietly question whether I'm initiating a pointless search without an ending).  You, on the other hand, come right out with it. 

" Really," you might retort.  "Sounds like you're suggesting I believe that stuff church folk always spout. Where's the proof?

Sadly, the Age of Reason, at least two centuries old, still keeps an intractable grip in some quarters.  This belief replaced faith with a form of "godly" scientific thought which stipulated proof of theory, premise, or proposition.  Bye-bye faith! So long belief in things not evidenced! Toodle-loo trust!Even worse, what about the thousands who grew up "unchurched," and for myriad reasons? What about the "live-and-let-live denizens"

How to introduce faith or belief or trust in God, the Sovereign manifestation of Love? I remember as a college freshman being introduced to agnosticism and atheism in a philosophy class.  As a newly minted coed, the concepts intrigued and excited me, especially when Russian literature, the concept of evolution,  and human exceptionalism vied for my attention and loyalty? By junior year, Ralph Elison and Emily Dickinson faced pretty stiff competition.

Flirtations of the mind can become as seductive as the Sirens who kept Odysseus in d a dither!

So, how did I get to the "asking" part? Actually, since I didn't charter my circuitous journey, I can't say with certainty.  "Stony the road we trod,  Bitter the chastening road.  Felt in the days when hope unborn had died..." Somehow, I emerged from turbulence to tranquility---thank God---to a semblance of sensibility and stability.  To describe a snippet of my journey to dependence on the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent requires a sequel.  In the meantime, "Where could I go but to the Lord?