Faces on Faith: Finding our way back to God
This is the first column I have written for the Sanibel-Captiva Islander. As a priest serving Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church on Sanibel, I thank you for the privilege of sharing some thoughts about faith.
A few years ago I was praying with someone before surgery. It was a young woman who was facing cancer surgery. In the waiting room, her grandfather said to me, “I told her to make sure to tell the nurses in the operating room to let her keep one of her hands free, for that is the hand that God holds.” Keep one hand free, for that is the hand God will hold. I looked at him and said that might be the most beautiful image I ever thought of. To imagine that before surgery in the hospital, with so much going on, he centered his thoughts and heart on God and helped her do the same.
I love that story. The powerful image of God holding onto her hand as she faces such difficult surgery and recovery. I’ve been thinking so much about that image lately. Our call as faithful people of God. I ask myself, “Do we do that? Do I do that? Keep a hand free for God to hold?”
There is so much busyness going on all around us. How do we remember to keep a hand free for God? Perhaps what our faith, what God is calling us to do is to take a step back and look up now and then from all that busyness and see what is right in front of us.
While we are in the middle of another hurricane season, we need to prepare our hurricane kits, have a plan, get everything ready, all the things necessary to be safely prepared in the event of an emergency. Let us not forgot to stop and look around at what is in front of us. If we spend all our time worrying about what might happen, we will miss out on what is happening right now. Right now what is happening is God is here, present, and we need him now more than ever.
We need God and we need to bring God everywhere we go. The hand that God holds is the same hand that reaches out to help a neighbor, stranger and friend. It is the hand that gives a wave and a smile, offers a hug, an extra hand to help with a heavy load, a hand to hold and hands clasped together in prayer. All the things that God calls us to do, all the things that make us a community of faithful witnesses to the love and grace of God.
The question we must ask is what is keeping us from reaching for that hand, for the hand of God? We stumble, we fall, we lose our way … how do we navigate back to God? Listen to your heart, listen to the truth of what God tells us. Look at creation, look at each other. We are not alone, our faith will always lead us back to God. I pray daily that when we fall, God gives us the humility to strengthen our faith and never stop reaching out our hand for the hand of God. It is there, God won’t let go. If we find there are the times when we let go, may our heart always remember that God will be there when we return.
Let us pray:
“God be with us on our journey
Jesus be with us on every hill
Spirit be with us in every stream
Each Sea and land, each path and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up,
In the waves of the sea,
On the crest of the clouds,
Each step on the journey we go.”
Amen!
The Rev. Suzy Post is the assisting priest at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.