Trinity, February 26, 2021

A very wise man, Viktor Frankl, once wrote…

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances….”

In the darkness of a concentration camp, Frankl awoke to this truth, that our essential humanity lives in how we choose to meet what we are given – that every human soul in this way is truly free. 

And yet, at the same time, we are not free. We are not free to choose much of what comes to us in our lives. We are not free to select the sufferings and blessings that choose us and shape us with their weight and light.  What we would choose to happen in our lives is often very different from what is needed. Nevertheless, the deeply liberating reality is that no virus or vaccine, no secret brotherhood running the government, no corporation, no enemy, no adversary, no illness, no spiritual being can ever take from us, the capacity of our spirit to choose how we meet what is. 

Dear friends, let us remember that our battle is not with what is; our battle is whether or not we can bring dignity to what is. Our battle is whether or not we can connect with the presence of Christ in what is, whether or not we can bring love to what is – no matter how desperate or how dark what is may be.

Contemplation by Rev. Jonah Evans