Enos

I've been guilty in the past of poking fun at beauty pageant contestants, which is why I enjoy watching Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality" so much. The curvaceous Miss-Somethings-in-waiting are asked what is most important to them, and each replies with agonizing predictability,"world peace." Now the shoe is on the other foot, or tiara is on a different head, whatever the case may be. 

Unapologetically, what I'm praying for these days is world peace; not a trite and hackneyed garden variety, but genuine, hate-free, battle-less peace. I have a personal reason for this sense of urgency. An email made it to my inbox yesterday morning containing tragic news.  According to a close friend in Kenya, a former colleague of mine and personal friend, Enos Nambafu Weswah, was brutally murdered along with 28 others at Mpeketoni near Lamu island this weekend as part of the escalating violence on the east African coast.  Enos was one of the professors at Kenya Baptist Theological College while I was academic dean, and he served KBTC faithfully as professor, Registrar, and then Principal until his retirement a few years ago. He was a gentle spirited man characterized by simple love and profound faith. Enos leaves behind his sweet wife Edna and precious daughter Yolanda. His death is a tragic loss and another chapter in the cruel tale of religious warfare mixed with majimboism (Swahili word for tribalism). Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants from Somalia claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks — just like they did for others last month that killed 65 people. Kenya police, however, said preliminary investigations pointed to a Kenyan separatist group (Mombasa Republican Council) on the coast. What makes matters worse is that this is truly out of character for a people I know personally to be congenial and hospitable.

I will never stand as a contestant in any pageant, but if asked what I want most these days, I would not hesitate. My clear response tinted by great angst would simply be, "world peace."

"The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness." (Psalms 72:3 KJV)

A Room Called Peace

Buechner wrote about A Room Called Remember, but I'm sitting this morning in a room called peace.  There is a giftedness about watching life draw to a gradual close without strain or struggle, silently, peacefully. Poppi's breathing has slowed and will soon stop altogether, and according to every indication it could go momentarily unnoticed when it happens. In a whitewashed room such as this, life scales back to the essentials--a breath, a heartbeat, a swallowing. And suddenly, what matters most in all the world is this sacred sharing of each slowing breath.  Perhaps in the stillness I hear a voice say to me, "Cherish better each moment with the ones you love. Savor more sweetly your own daily gifts."  Bonhoeffer wrote of this in Life Together: 

"We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts... Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things."