From Deep Inside
By Tom Wachunas
“…We are hard pressed on every side, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body…”
- 2 Corinthians 4: 8-10
I suppose it’s a
bit ironic that I should be writing this on April Fools’ Day, if only because
what I wish to share with you is something of utmost seriousness. Still, you could
call it a belated Easter meditation, though I dare say that it’s never out of
season to seriously embrace the single greatest event in all of human history:
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Not so ironic is
the fact that the art work pictured above - my newest, called “Supplication” –
very quickly evolved as a spontaneous prayer for the disunited state of America,
which I uttered many times over the course of Holy Week.
When I decided to
photograph my work (painted fabric and found flag mounted on a flat wood
armature) strictly for the purpose of this missive, I simply took the quickest
way and, without thinking too much, placed it outdoors on my cement driveway.
Looking down at it through the camera, I had the eerie feeling of examining
roadkill, though the work is intended to be ultimately presented as a wall
piece. But I didn’t think this unsettling association was too inappropriate.
For all of the
diversity of voices in this country that we claim to hold so dear, we have
become a cacophonous choir, united only in our dissonance, with neither a
harmonious score to sing nor a director to lead it. Our country is pressed down
to the point of numbness by the aimless and weighty pluralism of its ideas. And
there are times when I’m profoundly saddened that we’re losing - if we haven’t lost
it altogether – the willingness to trust and walk the Way of Jesus, much less
successfully navigate the treacherous roads we’ve already paved.
In my mourning,
then, I am indeed perplexed, yet not despairing. So it is that I offer this
prayer for surrender to the what, where, and why of Him who is our Hope.
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