Improvising in the face of DOOM

Killer Tornadoes by the dozen... Earthquakes in Colorado and Virginia...  Hurricane on the East Coast...  Super Typhoon between the Philippines & Japan...  Ongoing struggles with radiation leaks, pollution, political wackoes, right-wing pundits, gossipy neighbors... oops, that might be hittin' below the belt...  Doom, Doom, Doom...

This past spring some aging fellow convinced a bunch of gullible folks that the world was doomed and would end on such & such a date.  When it didn't, he confessed that his math was wrong and...  Oh my, my, my...  If he were the first or the most eloquent or the most passionate, it might be interesting.  However, when NPR and other news services begin doing feature stories on various aspects of that particular "what if?" it can become a bit of bother.  Doom, Doom, Doom...

Why bother, you ask?  OK, here it is...  I don't know about you, but I can only come up with a limited number of witty retorts and gentle comebacks when people share their end-time fears!  There's a limit to my patience with people whose primary concern in the world is when the world will end.  Perhaps it's irreverent but I concur with the movie title, "Heaven Can Wait"!  I'm not really motivated by or longing for a Jesus who will come and take me home!  I already live at home!!  This is my home!!  I am in this world!!  OK, I may be passing through it; death seems to come to us all!  Nevertheless I've a pragmatic and spiritual need to be engaged and available to this messy, confusing, and often frustrating existence!  Checking out before our time is up seems akin to cutting class in high school.  I know people did it.  I did it.  That didn't make it right.  Doom, Doom, Doom...

I'm convinced that the dance of life is an improvisation based on faith.  If that's true, the things in which you place your faith matter!!  If I have faith in a baseball team, I'm bound to be disappointed - as in - "Cubs Lose Pennant Again".  If I have faith in U2 then undoubtedly Bono will at some point lose his voice and The Edge will play out of tune.  If I have faith in Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, or Sarah Palin, then I've lost my mind and wandered into twilight zone that pretends to be a magical religion of nonsense and predictions which seems an awful lot like voodoo dressed up in banker's suits.  A dance like any of these sounds to me like a tarantella of madness leading to an inevitable collapse of both body and hope.  Doom, Doom, Doom...

On the other hand, if I have faith in a Creator God whose work of creation continues and grows both around and within us, then I'm likely to find a dance that uplifts and refreshes me.  If our faith is in the continuing salvation of an ever-growing Christ who loves us in spite of ourselves, then our dance will be a romance of joy and delight.  If our faith is lived in connection with the determination of like-minded people who follow this God of mystery and grace, then we'll be able to join hand-in-hand to build the "Kin-dom" of God in every facet of life.  Doom, Doom, Doom... BAH HUMBUG!!!

Improvisation?  Absolutely!!  There are no oracles or info kiosks of truth upon which we can fact-check the assumed blueprint of our supposed lives.  Still, we can improvise, try and try again, bless and bless some more, no matter where we find ourselves in life.  No More Doom!!

Start by taking a deep breath...  If you're waiting on a hurricane, if you're cleaning up after an earthquake, if you've survived a tornado, if the object of your faith has crashed and burned and you're wondering what to do...  Put on your dancin' shoes and listen for the piping of faith, or the trumpet of hope, or the guitar of grace, or the marching band of peace, or the lyrics of love!!  "Dance then, wherever you may be..."  Improvising in the face of doom is so much better than listening to folks who "doom" themselves out of the party that's goin' on right now!!

Randy