In Times Like These

You know. How the song goes:

In times like these you need a Savior/ In times like these you need an anchor/ Be very sure, be very sure/ Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

Chorus/ This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He’s the One/ This Rock is Jesus, the only One!/ Be very sure, be very sure/ Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

Well. Sometimes I forget this promise. and get overwhelmed. and loose faith in humanity. and get scared of riding the train.

But not without cause you see. There are shootings in Connecticut, murders in the subway station, bombs at Marathons. And in those times I realize that with freedom comes risk. That the places I want and need to go have some risk involved. Because I have to be able to trust humanity in order to arrive safely and sanely at school.

When I lived in Indiana this wasn’t a real fear for me.  Mostly because people couldn’t hop on a train from Boston and arrive at my house in no time at all.  And also because commuting is different.

It is my theory, though I may be crazy, that when you live in a city you become part of that city and begin to feel things as though your emotions are intertwined with others.  As if there are loose strings coming from each individual’s heart and brain that all add up together, like a bouquet of balloons. For example, on the first days of spring the whole train was happy and when people fight, the whole train shifts and closes off to protect themselves.  So.  All that to say, I feel rather connected to my community.  And I’ve often felt that some of this was because we trust each other.  I have to trust the people beside me to understand the rules of subway riding, to help me when I’m lost, to aid me when I’m sick, to allow me privacy when I’m on the phone, and to ride the city with me every day.  But on Monday, after speaking with my friends who lived in Boston, and waiting with one as she waited to hear if all her friends were safe, after all that- I felt like some of that trust was lost.  Some of that faith I had in people, faith I need to have in people in order to feel safe, was betrayed.

But then I remembered this.  That we all need a Savior.  And that though the world truly is a lost place we have access to that Savior.  And when I remembered that, I realized that I don’t need to worry.  Not because the rescuers and giving people of this world have restored my faith in humanity (though that is encouraging).  But because people naturally seek good.  Because God is good and they also seek him.  What people do with that driving desire to find God and be connected to good- well- that is a different topic.  But. As long as God is (which is forever) there is always hope for humanity.  And that is good enough for me.