Maybe it was because there were two mass shootings last weekend, or the on-going tension in Washington, but the week is bringing out some of the worst in us.   One obnoxious tweet begets another even worse tweet from an opponent.   The war of tweets gets sensationalized and our anger and resentment grows.  Newspaper comment boards are downright ugly.   The person with the meanest statement gets the most likes.

I’ve been feeling myself tossed in the political currents where the temptation is to stoop to the lowest level of those  we disagree with.   All of that  while trying  to live that Jesus stuff about “Loving your neighbor as yourself.”     I felt myself slipping away from who I want to be In the dissonance I was feeling.  Howard Thurman’s meditation, “The Moments of High Resolve” came to mind, with it’s  singular reminder to cling to the radiant moments when we have been touched by the Holy, and know who and whose we are.

The Moments of High Resolve

Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.

Despite the dullness and barrenness of the days that pass, if I search with due diligence, I can always find a deposit left by some former radiance. But I had forgotten. At the time it was full-orbed, glorious, and resplendent. I was sure that I would never forget. In the moment of its fullness, I was sure that it would illumine my path for all the rest of my journey. I had forgotten how easy it is to forget.

There was no intent to betray what seemed so sure at the time. My response was whole, clean, authentic. But little by little, there crept into my life the dust and grit of the journey. Details, lower-level demands, all kinds of cross currents — nothing momentous, nothing overwhelming, nothing flagrant — just wear and tear. If there had been some direct challenge –a clear-cut issue — I would have fought it to the end, and beyond.

In the quietness of this place, surrounded by the all-pervading Presence of God, my heart whispers: Keep fresh before me the moments of my High Resolve, that in fair weather or in foul, in good times or in tempests, in the days when the darkness and the foe are nameless or familiar, I may not forget that to which my life is committed.

Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.

From the book “For The Inward Journey” by Howard Thurman

“If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Psalm 130:3