Wake up, Question, Act

The following was written by Laurie Gudim a religious iconographer and liturgical artist, a writer and lay preacher living in Fort Collins, CO. in the Speaking to the Soul section of The Episcopal Cafe' on December 20, 2012 just days after the murder of 20 children and 6 adults in CT. What follows are the first sentences of several paragraphs in her meditation. several of the quotes end with question marks. This is, I think, a good way of approaching and strengthening ones faith because questions allow for the possibility of answers to difficult questions and, hopefully, in return a stronger faith. 

"According to Matthew, John the Baptist was the Voice in the Wilderness, ...
The Baptizer used a technique kind of like that of a Zen master who hits his follower with a rod to wake him up. ...
The stick, in John’s case, is strong words. ...
“Wake up,” he is saying. “What good are your schemes and dreams? What good is your life? Your religion? Your heritage?...
These days we don’t have a prophet to help us wake up to what’s important. Instead we have world events. ...
We can look at all these events as evil running rampant in the world and hide away,...
But if we go down this path our suspicion and fear will grow, feeding on itself like some monster. ...
A healthier response might be to see in the world events that terrify us the opportunity to be shocked awake. What the heck are we doing, that these horrible things can occur? The responsibility belongs to all of us. What good is our religion? Our heritage? If we examine our lives, individually and collectively, what difference do they really make?..."
(Above emphasis is mine.)

The gospel lesson for this meditation is Matthew 3:1-12.

The complete text of the meditation can be found at:
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/thesoul/daily_reading/wake_up.htm