The Melody of Lent

 

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the wounded soul

Rev. Howard Thurman once wrote of this Spiritual, “The peculiar genius of the Negro slave [song] is revealed here in much of its structural splendor. The setting is the book of Jeremiah. The prophet has come to a “Dead Sea” place in his life. Not only is he discouraged over the external events in the life of Israel, but he is also spiritually depressed and tortured. [Wounded,] he cried out, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there?’ It is not a question of fact that he is raising—it is not a question directed to any particular person for an answer. It is not addressed either to God or to Israel, but rather it is a question raised by Jeremiah’s entire life. He is searching his own soul. He is stripped to the literal substance of himself, and is turned back on himself for an answer. Jeremiah is saying actually, “There must be a balm in Gilead; it cannot be that there is no balm in Gilead.” The relentless winnowing of his own bitter experience has laid bare his soul to the end that he is brought face to face with the very ground and core of his own faith.”

Rev. Thurman help us notice that the balm doesn’t just come magically in the mail like your prescription.  Sometimes it is only when we have laid our souls bare, worn out, and weary that we get the sip of water for which we are so thirsty.  Sometimes our woundedness is an openness, vulnerability, if we doggedly stay hopeful in the hurt ~ which is a spiritual muscle that many of us have not been taught to exercise ~ or that even exists.

I invite you to re-read Thurman’s words and find yourself in them.  Are you like Jeremiah feeling in exile?  Do you feel like you have laid your soul bare?  Do you long for a Spirit to strengthen and sustain you? 

Where have you found a balm in these Lenten days so far?

Where do you continue to search for the Sacred stirring and swirling in such a time as this?

May your reflections and responses to these questions, even if all you can say is, “I don’t know”, open you to the peace and presence of God. Amen.