Wow! I’m HERE, NOW!

Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser M.D.

Good Afternoon, God

I confess, I started out today — or maybe it was yesterday — really angry at You. Partly it was because of the horror of ISIS actions — atrocities in the Middle East — and partly it was frustration at how we humans are seemingly unable to take a step forward without a few steps back.

For example, information in the book Missing Microbes was horrifying. Yes, we NEED antibiotics. But, we are now learning that even one dose can change a child’s microbiome — and make a child fatter, more susceptible to allergies, asthma, GERD, IBS, and on and on. YIKES!

But an hour this morning with June, my spiritual director, helped. Sigh. It was a long exercise of continuing humiliation. I realized that I am only lacking opportunity — that my drive to FIX things and make a “better world” could be subverted — just as I feel has happened to humans over and over again. History offers a painful look at our species. As St. Paul said so many years ago: All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.

Yet You LOVE us. You love ALL of us. And so I gathered up my shattered sorrowing self and sat in Your Love. I cannot fix me. I cannot fix anyone or anything. But, I can come humbly into Your Presence and ask You to put me back together — bit by bit. Thank You!

Then, this afternoon I was reading an article in Discover Magazine and learned our brain has 85 billion neural cells, 150 trillion synapses and an almost infinite number of ways of combining synapses. As the article said, “Possibilities are always wildly, insanely greater than the number of things around us.”

And, all of a sudden, HOPE returned. And I felt how incredibly wonderful it is to be a human — here now — as we are. Wow! Thank You, again!