Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, we are cut off completely." Therefore prophesy, and say to them, "Thus says the Lord God: 'I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.'"
--Ezekiel 37:11-12 NRSV
The chaos occurring in the U.S. government alongside an hourly stream of news about it leaves us exhausted and feeling dried up, our minds suspended in incredulity, and in the end anxious and cut off. Hopelessness may cozy up next to us, pull closed the shutters and we find ourselves reacquainted with numbed deadness. Ezekiel asks in this kind of moment, "Can these bones live again?: I hear in the question a lingering ray of hope. Ezekiel is asking "Can we expect something unpredictable?"
In his most recent book, On Freedom, Timothy Snyder insists that there can be no freedom when everything is predictable. At first this didn't match up with my idea of freedom. I want freedom to be a stable, mutually understood value on which all humans depend. Yet, as I read on, it began to be clearer. It can't be called freedom if there is only one choice. The more choices, the more freedom to opt for one of those. And yes, therein, the door is opened for us to make "wrong" choices, or choices not to our liking, or even as we're witnessing bad for the earth and its inhabitants in general!
I believe most of us would agree that God has ultimate freedom. Who hasn't wished from time to time that they were God so that they could choose the physically impossible thing to happen? But then if anything can happen by our choice, I have a feeling we wouldn't keep any banks open for all the people wishing they had all the money they desired. Enter the larger moral questions of freedom. Freedom has to be tempered with virtue. The choices people make ideally should be in the best interests of everyone. Virtues reflect the best of how things should be, what the best choice is. Knowing what should be gives us a compass heading for how our freedom should be exercised in any given circumstance.
I suggest that pondering and implementing the more virtuous pathways forward may open up futures we cannot predict, which leads to more freedom for all. When we are feeling dried out, lifeless, stressed, and caught in the bottom of a deep rut (grave?), the direction to choose might lie in the direction of acting virtuously, even if you don't feel it in the moment. Like being kind, generous, giving aid, or offering a blessing to the people you meet. Single acts of virtue can lead to transformation in someone's day or even in your own soul! Let's set humanity truly free by doing the unpredictable -- by acting virtuously.
Shalom & May Prosperity Knock Frequently on Your Door!
Mark
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