Each of us faces some adversity in our lives. How we deal with it is a reflection of our faith — faith in ourselves, our dreams and our place in the divine universe.
This topic arose because I observed how many of the candidates in the recent election responded to adversity — their loss. Most elections have at least as many losses as wins. We are taught how to succeed; I question whether we know how to respond to failure.
There is a biblical example of how a prophet of God dealt with adversity. Moses truly had some failures, even with God on his side.
First of all, Moses really did not want to be a prophetic leader. He protested that he just wasn’t the right guy, but eventually he was persuaded. His first job was to convince Pharaoh to release his people from slavery, but he had to try 10 different plagues before he convinced Pharaoh to let his people go. Nine failures, one success.
After the people were freed, their former owner chased them to the edge of the Red Sea. With God’s help, they managed to escape, but the ex-slaves were not terribly appreciative. Maybe, they thought, freedom wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
The people journeyed to the base of Mount Sinai. Moses left his people so he could climb the mountain to spend time with Yahweh. Moses’ visit on the mountain would last 40 days. During this time, Yahweh revealed commandments to Moses, some of which Yahweh inscribed with his “finger” on stone tablets.
Moses then returned to his people and found them building a golden calf, which they described as an idol to the presence of the god who saved them. Moses got downright angry and without thinking threw the tablets to the ground, breaking them. Moses was disappointed in his people. His people also were dissatisfied, asking whether the life they were leading was better than the life from which they had been freed. They had freedom, but at what price?
Moses had a vision — a dream — of what he was doing with his life. He must have believed he was helping create a nation of people who would worship Yahweh and be led to their Promised Land.
He learned his people were flawed; that they who had been raised in slavery did not understand the responsibilities and sacrifices of freedom. There was a mindset of slavery, which meant these people who recently had been slaves would have to learn to be comfortable with the obligations and uncertainties of freedom. It would take 40 years of wandering before they would be ready for freedom. This was truly adversity.
Moses had to know as he came off the mountain that his dream was shattered. He was disappointed. His dream would not be realized. But Moses traded his old dream for a more realistic one. Did he forget his old dream? We do not know.
There is a Jewish tradition that offers a scenario about Moses — one that reflects it is always easy to do the right thing when all is going well, but the real measure of a person’s character is his or her behavior when things are going badly.
As a metaphor for life and new hopes, Moses is pictured as lovingly gathering up the fragments of the tablets he had thrown to the ground and, when the Ark of the Covenant is built, placing the fragments alongside the replacement set of tablets. He wanted to remember that he once dreamed of achieving something great, some-thing that turned out to be beyond his grasp, but he does not want the memory to brand him in his own mind as a failure.
Those shattered fragments of what he had yearned to accomplish would not be millstones weighing him down. They would be steppingstones, forming the foundation of future success.
I love the image of Moses placing the shards in the Ark. The dream was not lost; it was just reconfigured. I would suggest we consider our adversities as steppingstones to our dreams. That requires faith.
We who have had dreams of a better world (and that must be all of us), and who have been brave enough to work for that better world, have had defeats. Let us use those defeats as preludes to our future success.
In the ongoing tale, Moses and the Israelites had more disappointments. Forty years was a long time to wander in the desert with only manna to eat. Almost all of the original slaves died after 40 years. Aaron died. Miriam, who was the metaphorical source of water, died. There was no more water. The people complained again, saying this had to be worse than slavery. Moses resolved the problem by striking a rock from which the water then flowed.
Moses did not attribute this miracle to God and, therefore, God told Moses that he would not go to the Promised Land. Talk about disappointment. He had wandered for 40 years, been a leader of a disenchanted and rebellious people, and what did he get for his efforts? To die without setting foot in the promised destination.
But Moses continued to dream. He went to the top of the mountain to die and did so after having seen the Promised Land from the mountaintop.
We all have dreams — of freedom or of love or of accomplishment — that keep us alive. When they are shattered, how do we stay alive? We pick up the shattered pieces, we put them somewhere they can be remembered and where they can be used as steppingstones to our future, and we respond by dreaming new dreams.
Moses, the Israelites, you and I have lived through lost dreams, and have grown and thrived as a result.
So, for those who felt failure in this past election cycle, perhaps we need to consider picking up the shards of defeat, learn from them and move forward to future challenges. There are dreams to be actualized. Have faith.
The Rev. Becky Gunn is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor. She may be reached at uubeckygunn@aol.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.