Challenging SituationsSample

The Storage Room

To one side of my office is a small storage room. It’s home to a growing collection of urns that contain the unclaimed ashes of people who have passed away. All were well known and loved here (Wayside Chapel), but for some, we have no idea where to begin looking for family. Sadly, the collection continues to grow. About once a week I find myself introducing a new urn to the rest of the group. This growing community of the unclaimed has a hold on my heart in ways that are hard to describe. 

Our usual mode of operation isn’t to see others as ‘they are’, rather, we tend to see others and the world, as 'we' are. Being lost in a culture of self-improvement, it’s easy to assume that others would benefit from the accumulated wisdom of our discontented strivings for impossible goals and standards. Most of our modes of being in this world involve some kind of impulse to fix or control. 

To someone in a world full of pain and suffering, we can offer the gift of tears. Tears can cleanse our eyes and provide a renewed clarity of vision to help us truly see the person before us, and that we cannot fix anyone. Tears can help to release a burden. When this happens, a miracle can occur, enough space is opened up for God to work. How’s that? When we surrender our agenda we are open to God’s. 

On a bad day when I’m with my gathering of 'urn companions', I simply place my hands on them and pray for a world where every heart can find a resting place.

Written by JON OWEN