Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal May 24

In this week’s issue, Rev. Justin writes:

This morning, I woke up thinking about this quote from E. B. White: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

Indeed it does.

There is so much that is broken, so much that needs improving, so much in our world that needs our attention and love: the earth, poor people who are being criminalized and punished for being poor, immigrants that are being torn from their families, detained and deported, the ongoing disparities that impact indigenous people and people of color, and elected leaders that seem to have lost their moral compass.

And at the same time, there is so much to savor: the lilac and lily of the valley, the irises about to bloom, the red cardinals amidst the neon green leaves, the beauty of new relationships being formed across race, class, and culture as the Poor People’s Campaign gathers momentum, and the hope so many of us experience when we hear our youth speak at their recent Youth Sunday service.

Do we save or savor the world? Can we do both? Must we do both? Can we dance with joy, knowing tears of grief, and incredible sorrow, or the call to show up in a new way, might be our next dance partner? Can we give ourselves fully to the world, knowing there will be days when we say “No,” so we can tend to our own wellbeing?

How do you juggle this tension being saving and savoring? Between giving and receiving? How do you find a third way, a path that weaves between joy and a vision of what might be, that sustains you, and brings your gifts to bear in the world?

Together, in community, may we wrestle with these questions.

Together, may we find ways to savor and save this beautiful and fragile world.

I’ll see you in church,

Justin