Shalom

Sitting at the window seat of National Gallery cafe now with the natural sunlight filling the whole space.

Such moments like that echo of shalom. 

Are they incompatible with the broken realities of the world?
This question I have struggled with in my freshman year as I come face to face with human suffering and broken families. 

I've thus far managed to come to a healthy (or so I think) tension where I know that shalom moments come by 'the slow, steady engagement with and practice of God's will' (Bruggemann, in Evangelism and Discipleship). Yet, have things become too convenient?

For convenience is indeed the goal of the dominant culture. 

There is no conclusion to this, for the corollary of the above statement is that because Christians called to the alternative of shalom, we are constantly reclaiming zones of alternative culture.

In the same breath I thank God for the blessings I have at work, of very cherished friendships and exciting projects, I wonder if I am allowing myself to be inconvenienced enough. 

Soon enough, perhaps. Just thinking out loud by writing. 

P.S. What precipitated this was reading about the inhumane detention of refugees in Libya.