Bread on the Water
“Send out your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will get it back.“ Ecclesiastes 11:1
Yesterday I was privileged to be with a group of interfaith ministers at the Clinton Presidential Library hoping to work together and share resources about addiction in face of the opioid crisis. The Clinton Foundation sponsored the event and will be working with all of us in the coming year. They started a similar dialogue in Houston, and now Little Rock is the second city to be involved. I think their next city is Jacksonville, Florida.
It was thought provoking to be the beneficiary of an international foundation in our own locality that we have supported. I could only remember this well-known saying from Ecclesiastes of bread cast upon the water returning.
The stories from the faith groups were similar and different depending on their view and personal experience with addiction, but we share a common problem. As I sat there in that Great Hall overlooking downtown Little Rock, I kept remembering that our strength overcoming a difficult situation is in community. We each add our experience and contribute to the solution. Recovery occurs in community. Solutions to recovery occur in community. Support of those trying to help others experience recovery occurs in community. None of us has all the answers.
I have learned all this by meeting with and staying connected to spiritual friends who keep reminding me of how I most experience the God of my understanding in community. I come full circle like the bread on the water as I am reminded each morning at Morning Prayer in the Prayer of St. Chrysostom. “.. and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them.” Book of Common Prayer, p. 102.
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com