Let's begin at the end

Today has been a day of beginnings and endings. It began with an ending with an early phone call to announce the death of a dear friend and member of my church. She had been ill for a long time and as part of faith community we had travelled some of the distnace she had through the thick and thin of her illness. I was talking to one of our younger members who said that it was the first death she had been close to and that one of the consequences of being part of a faith community is that you do get to experience things like death more frequently. It reminded me of the great John Donne piece that begins "No man is an island..." and ends "...do not ask for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee." It eloquently makes the point that as people of a connected community every death diminishes us. The problem is in our disconnected, anticommunity culture we are all islands or rather that is what we aspire to. That makes for less sadnesses, less funerals to go to but something else "less" as well.
Today ended with a beginning, a group of young people who wanted to gather to talk about their new faith. It was great fun and quite exciting to watch these new beginnings. One said that she used to be very anti everything, especially church but that she had changed when she had worked with people of faith.
"You can't argue with the things they do," she said.
Despite what others do then, and despite the shared pain, I'm sticking firmly to the mainland, it may be more painful but it is also more fun.