What Can I Do?

 Pentecost The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

The television has two instruments that control it.

I get confused.

The washer asks me, do you want regular or delicate?

Honestly, I just want clean.

Everything is like that.

I won’t even mention cell phones.

I can turn on the light of the lamp beside my chair

Where a book is waiting, but that’s about it.

Oh yes, and I can strike a match and make fire.

What I Can Do, by Mary Oliver

I love her simplicity and honesty. There are some days that I feel as if Life has become way too complicated. The religious liturgical year rolls around and today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. This drama has two channels. One is up close and personal: Jesus breathed His Spirit into the locked room and the other is communal: a ‘violent wind’ rushes down upon those who have gathered together from all nations. 

Honestly, some days I just want the Spirit to strike a match and make a fire. A fire that burns away my dross, our dross. A fire in my belly that creates light for others to see. A fire in my brain that enlivens my life and helps my perspective. I want the warmth of a fire for comfort and the soft glow of an evening fire, where marshmallows become soft and gooey and family and friends have gathered in a circle. At any fire pit, I want to know that God’s Spirit is alive and well in our confusing world.

“What Can I Do?” I ask Mary. And she replies from that spirit world of mystery to the God of my “not understanding.” Keep it simple. Open your mind and heart and wait patiently to receive God’s Spirit. Then do something. For the love of God, do something merciful, just, and kind today.