June 14, 2009:

Ponderings of a Pilgrim PASTOR

“Take It Easy, Sonia!”

            You’ve probably seen a picture of Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, hobbling on crutches. She broke an ankle during a fall at LaGuardia Airport while catching a flight from New York to Washington to continue her meetings with Senators who will vote on her confirmation.

            Just an accident?  Of course, but permit me to suggest that the anxiety Judge Sotomayor is going through may have caused her to hurry and thus take a fall.  We can understand how she is feeling.  She faces tough questioning from those who for political reasons wish to discredit her.  Shame on them!  But given her backround, education and experience I am sure she will come through all this very well.

            But her experience is a good reminder to all of us to “go careful” when we are worried about a difficult situation we have to face.  It’s natural to feel rising tension and to imagine all sorts of unhelpful possibilities.  We will be tempted to speed up our lives and do more than we need to do.  At such moments we need to take it easy on ourselves and trust that our own experience and abilities will see us through.  Actually, when we look back on similar experiences in our lives we came through them just fine, didn’t we?

            Anxiety or worry is imagining things that may never happen.  It’s the unknown that gets to us but we can’t control that anyway.  As the old saying has it, “Let go and let God.”  God really will see us through.  And that’s something we can count on.

Love,

Pastor Dave