I see the craziness rippling though the Orthodox Christian world and I think “What in the world have i gotten myself into?” I thought somehow it was supposed to be better, a greener kind of grass on this side of the fence. Alas I was mistaken.

People in the Orthodox Church can be be as whatever it was I thought I was leaving behind on my journey. Egomaniacal? Check. Political? Check. Missing the point entirely? Sure. Come to think of it, though, I can be that way too. Of course when that happens to me, when I’m still like the person I thought I had left behind, it doesn’t make the headlines because, well, I’m very distant from the thrones and dominions. Yet I have my ways, even in my own little world.

What to do?

Well, there have been more than a few times when I felt like running off to a tropical island and spending the rest of my life playing music for tourists. Its an honest living. There have been times, as well, when the whole idea of being a hermit seemed okay. Completely leaving the whole thing behind was out of the question but sitting quietly in a back pew for the rest of this temporary arrangement had its charms.

Yet that’s the way it is with the Church. We bear each other’s burdens even if we don’t actually know the struggler. It’s a pact, when they need help I need to have their back and when my time comes I pray they have mine. While people higher up the food chain can have a disproportionate impact the principle still holds. I see them struggle and somehow I have to find a way to be strong for them, to lift them up, and help them recover if I can. They might not like the whole idea, after all there are times when I don’t want to be reminded of my rough edges, but a deal is still a deal. Great or small, important or not, I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. Its in the Book.

Now off for some more Lent.