Week Six - In Due Time

A few years ago, my friend Lydia and I spent a January weekend at a Mennonite Worship Leader retreat. Incidentally, neither of us were Mennonites. Or worship leaders, in the traditional sense. But the experience was meaningful in many ways, and one of the speakers there said something that has stuck with me ever since. He said, "We borrow faith from one another." I think he was speaking specifically to why a tradition so antiquated as church-going might matter in modern times. The point of going to church, as opposed to practicing faith in isolation, was not about salvation or winning social or spiritual points, but rather to participate in a collective bartering of faith with one another. Sometimes we go to collect. Sometimes our presence bolsters someone else.

This made immediate sense to me, not just in a religious context. Socially, politically, emotionally-- we all borrow faith from one another in turn. We show up to the table with our baskets, empty or full. Life is one big dish to pass. 
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Recently, I've come to feel this sense of borrowing endurance from the collective even more acutely. Maybe you have too. I feel intense gratitude for the village of kindness, resilience, and persistence I see forming before my eyes. This village convenes globally through the magic of the internet. It also convenes nightly at the dinner tables of my friends. This song, and in a larger sense this whole project, is what I'm bringing to the potluck this week.

The video is a blend of footage taken during the Ithaca Rally for Immigrant Rights and at the Johnson Museum's Empathy Academy continuation exhibit of the Subway Therapy project by Matthew “Levee” Chavez. Just two places where I borrowed faith in the past month. 

In Due Time

We find ourselves marathon running
hey when did we sign up for this?
Feels like there's a bulldozer digging for water
to put out the burn between my ribs
no rest for the weary, and no end in site
struggling and straining to see the tunnel light

Oh there's a beautiful world out there
With seas of tall trees and clean mountain air
And millions of strangers forming ranks to defend
bearing nothing but cups of sugar to lend
I could use some today
Friend can I borrow your faith?
I promise you can have some of mine
in due time.

Cashier at the market had a smile like a ten dollar bill
the crows thought they were sparrows dancing in circles over the hills
A whole life speckled with moments that hit the spot
like gasoline rainbows all over the parking lot

Oh there's a beautiful world, I know
Where children's laughter and dandelion wishes go
and millions of strangers forming ranks to defend
bearing nothing but cups of sugar to lend
Could you use some today?
Friend you can borrow my faith
I know I will pull on your line
in due time.

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That's it for now. But there will be a new song next week. Sign up below, and I'll send it straight to your inbox.