Alleluia people

Since returning from Taiwan, I’ve been in a little bit of a slump, which I am only now slowly emerging from. I stopped my usual bedtime practice of meditating on the readings of the day and writing in my prayer journal. I withdrew into myself voluntarily, a self-imposed trek through the desert, plodding through hours of mindless TV.

It’s a combination of physical and emotional exhaustion, and trying to find my rhythm again, the energy required to start on the next project of the year (there are so many!!!). I was also feeling a little disheartened for when I see those whom I love dearly still unable to discover the true meaning of His love, I get sad and feel really useless for I am unable to help them.

Some are prisoners of their own fears. Others escape through their addiction of choice. Perpetually angry. Bitter. Lonely. Vulnerable. Frazzled by life and not doing well at all. Searching desperately for love in ways not good for their health. So much brokenness. So much pain. It’s depressing to see them like this. I sometimes feel like shaking them, “There is a better way – life can be good even when it sucks; especially when it sucks. You have the ability to change your life”.

Something A. said during a recent Bible meeting struck me as a powerful concept. She said we are Alleluia* people. She’s right. Especially in this Easter season, it is fitting to be a person who gives thanks with great joy and a sense of triumph that the powers of darkness have been overcome. Through the ultimate act of love that inspires with its depth of generosity. Because of that, we now have the promise of eternal life. It’s amazingly awesome even if we grasp only half of what this means. And yet this is a truth increasingly forgotten, discounted, misunderstood, overlooked or rejected.

I know I cannot save the world. Not immediately at least. Maybe in another seven years…

I do know I can be an Alleluia person and give thanks for the rainbows that occur in my life every day, whether it rains or not. And hopefully, radiate the joy and pleasure I experience and touch those around me with that saving grace.

* In Hebrew, Halleluyah means praise God.