(Image by Si Smith, from the book ‘After the Apocalypse’.)

When looking at all the brokenness this world contains – war, greed, injustice and shallowness – we might be forgiven for despairing. For throwing up our hands and seeking seperation and distraction. This would be a sane response.

But what if this story is only a partial truth, or even worse, a distortion of a deeper one? What if despite all of this darkness, there is goodness flowing still at the very heart of our humanity?

If this were true – even if we merely choose to believe that it is true – what difference would it make? What might be the sanest response?

If we can believe that there is goodness at the heart of everything, a strange thing starts to happen. We see it everywhere. It does not blind us to the presence of darkness but we start to notice those ever-present pricks of light…

Perhaps this is a useful way to characterise our whole Advent journey… so much of our lives have become detatched from each other. We live through performative pixels on screens but the good stuff – the best stuff – is made of warm flesh and friendship. How we need our tribes…

Tribalism can be bad of course, for all the obvious reasons, but how could humanity have survived without each other? It might have helped us hunt mammoths but it also gave us the grounds in which we could learn to love.

If we look for goodness, we will see it most commonly in the middle community.

May you find yours. May you give yourselves to each other and in return may you all be held.

And from this place of warmth, may you reach out to those who are still cold.

Stand



We are not helpless here

Thundering juggernauts will shudder to a halt

Inches from our upraised hands

When we make a stand



We are not victims here

Each injustice is remembered, not to avenge

But as the tender wound of our becoming

Back when we made a stand



We are not broken here

Our bodies embrace their beautiful imperfections

And here, in our many shapes and colours

We make our stand



We are not defeated here

There is much to do but we are many, and

Whole worlds are reshaped by loving

So, right here, we make our stand

From after the apocalypse