welcome August 25, 2003 Issue

Not a chance in the world

Warren Bolon

MAYBE IT'S THE MONSOON-LIKE late summer we've been having in the northeastern United States. It's felt like we've been stuck in a global holding pattern of daily downpours. Dark clouds on the horizon hint at concerns more serious than repetitive weather—another hotel bombing in Indonesia with suspected Al Qaeda links, casualties in Iraq, nuclear saber rattling in North Korea, shifting terrorism alert levels.

Yet many of us aren't in the same place, spiritually and mentally, that we were months ago. We at least know we need to stay alert. To be watchful but not shuttered in fear. To find our own ways to "pray without ceasing," as St. Paul urged in one of his letters.

Cultivating a growing expectation that our spiritual practice will make a difference is one way out of cyclical anxiety. The simplest prayer—silently consenting to God's full control of all that lives and moves—advances the cause of peace. The divine ear doesn't care how beautifully we word our hearts' desires. Asking is the important thing.

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