Over Easy Please

                                                                Over-Easy Please

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

 

When ordering up, I like my eggs over-easy. Truth be told, that’s exactly how I like life, too. Less complicated, predictable, stable, and safe is how I like to roll.

To be honest, every once in a while I do like em scrambled up as it sort of shakes things up. Hard-boiled isn’t all bad, either, as it can be a grab-and-go delicacy offered when on the go. Of course, fried eggs with nothing running out of control and centered upon the bread of life can be quite tasty as well.

A book filled with analogies about how we like life once we bust out of the shell, the protective covering if you will, might be easy to come by. We could call it “Cracked!” Once cracked, life spills on over into the frying pan we’re all jumping into.

This brings me to what snagged these thoughts today. My husband and I watched a movie last night. After making the big decision to rent it for $3.99, we watched “Of God’s and Men.” It’s a true story about a group of Trappist Monks (known as the Monks of Tibhirine who committed their lives to prayer and living in Christian community). This group lived in Algeria.

 War broke out and they were killed—martyrs if you will. The movie didn’t focus on that part, nor did it show much of it at all. What it did focus on was the struggle within their faith community. Should they stay? Or should they leave? It depicts the heart of Christianity. They lived sacrificially for others in their faith community as well as others outside of their faith community. They came to serve. I might add that it was worth every cent of the rental fee.

At the end of the movie, we searched for details about their story as it had taken place as recently as 1996. After sitting in silence for a while, we mustered up the courage to voice what we both had been thinking. “What on earth were we doing in 1996?” It seemed to compound the heaviness knowing this piece of history took place at a time when we were living a completely different reality.

“For my yoke is easy my burden light,” says the Lord in Matthew 11:30. These men lived Light. They stayed when they could have left. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have been as brave.

After much reflection over the course of several days, I came to the conclusion as to why I was still feeling so sad. It wasn’t that this actually took place that made me sad. It was the fact that it continues to happen even today.

At one point within the movie, one of the subtitles read: “We are all guilty.” And I knew well the truth of this statement. Slaying our neighbor without just cause shakes many a foundation. We need merely listen to the makeshift of news to understand human nature as if mirrored reflections aren’t enough. Getting others up in arms is always in style. Grabbing arms as weapons instead of trying to piecemeal peaceful communication isn’t always a high priority in the global hotbed we live in today.

Perhaps the long story short is that if what we do is not of Him, and what we say is not of Him, the fruit will always be about strife and division if not downright murderous choices. If what is done is not done in love, then upon bended knee might be the weapon of warfare needed rather than those devised by man. Sacrificial living might be a worthy topic of exploration along with humble and contrite hearts to better care for the souls walking beside us.

How might that look? It’s a question I’m asking myself. 

A quote from Leonard Cohen sheds light as the shell of the egg begins to break anew. “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the Light gets in.”  

May His Light fill each and every crack within us. May that Light spill on over easy to all things sacred. May His Light reflect clarity when life becomes scrambled, and may His Light bring a soft radiance when things appear hard-boiled or downright fried. May every ounce of our being serve where He desires His Light to be shed.  Amen.