"Life Comes at You Fast"

The older I get--and since my 30th birthday is next week, I suppose I really am getting older--the more truth I find in Nationwide Insurance's "Life comes at you fast," ad campaign (see videos here, here and here). Though the ads are fairly humorous, their central message is that of the parable of the rich man with very prosperous investments in Luke 12--though life might be going pretty well for you now, things can change overnight. And it seems like for many of the people around me that I care about, that is exactly what has been happening the past few months; their lives have been rapidly falling apart.

Perhaps due to the fact that God really seems to be blessing Zsofi and I (and Eszti!), there has been a lot of dissonance for us recently, almost like we are living on a little island in the eye of a hurricane. On one hand we are full of joy, excitement and contentment, but on the other hand, our hearts are simultaneously broken and full of empathy for the people we love who are in the midst of profound struggles. And perhaps the greatest challenge for me is that there's not a whole lot more I can do, except pray, be an encouragement, and try to help bear their burdens.

In any case, it caused me to spend some time reflecting on a favorite poem of mine from my student days by John Donne. Donne begins by praying the following:

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new...

Those three words always struck me, "break, blow, burn," both because of the harshness as well as the seemingly totalizing destruction involved--a process that seems to be all around me. And it has left me with one hope; that it is God who is seeking to mend, and that through all the battering, He will make us new.