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Suicide Bomber Kills President of Iraqi Council - Education Cuts Hurting Schools in Poorer Neighborhoods - CEO Resigns Following Fraud Investigation - Israeli Army Moves into Refugee Camp in Gaza - Same Sex Couples Demand Equal Rights - Earthquake in India Claims over 700 lives - Teenager Arrested in Slaying of Parents - Global Warming on the Rise - SARS Virus 'Mutating Rapidly' - Atkins Diet: Does it Work and is it Healthy?

I have just read you a list of newspaper headlines from various newspapers from around the world in recent times. And what those fairly typical headlines say to me is this: we live in a world and in a culture that is fraught with disharmony, disorder and confusion. Everything seems to be out of balance. And as a result of this many people, young and old, are left feeling restless, fearful, insecure, stressed out and utterly displaced. And what do we do when we feel this way? We often medicate, or seek clinical counseling, or simply run from our pain and keep on the move - always on the move; running, running, running.

In his book, 'Eternal Echoes - Exploring the Human Hunger to Belong,' John O'Donohue asserts that the human heart is inhabited by many different longings. In its own voice, he says, each one calls to your life. But what voice is this? Why does it seep with such unease into our happiness? Deep down in each of us is a huge desire to belong. Without a sense of belonging, we are either paralyzed or utterly restless. In O'Donohue's words, this quest to belong 'drives some people out of the truth and shelter of love; they begin a haunted journey on a never-ending path in quest of the something that is missing.' The voice of longing in our souls is the voice of the eternal longing within us that confirms us as relentless pilgrims on the earth. There is something within all of us that no one or nothing else in the world is able to meet or satisfy. According to O'Donohue, if we could recognize that such unease is natural, it would free us from getting on the treadmill of chasing ever more temporary and partial satisfactions.

Because of our persistent unease, it is understandably hard for us to appreciate the order of the natural world around us - the rhythm of the sun as it gently runs its course, the miracle of plants as they open with new life, the comfort of the wind as it cools and refreshes. The cycle of life and death, although it brings chaos to individual lives, is well ordered, and the world passes from generation to generation.

That order is the wisdom of God. And, as our first reading this morning from the Book of Proverbs reminds us, God's wisdom predates creation: "When the Lord established the heavens, I was there." God's wisdom assisted in creation. Creation works because of God's wisdom. God's wisdom continues to work around the world and within us.

The disorder and imbalance of our lives may keep us from sensing the wisdom of God, but wisdom is there. God created us in wisdom, ordered our bodies and gave us health, implanted within us a desire to know our creator, and nurtures us in our hunger for love. Even when we are so preoccupied with the business of our lives, even when we are unaware, God's wisdom is at work, keeping the pace of our hectic lives.

In his book, 'Creative Ministry' Henri Nouwen writes: How can we come to a creative contact with the grounding of our own life? Only through a teacher who can lead us to the source of our existence by showing us who we are and, thereby, what we are to do. And who, I wonder, is that teacher?

For us, as a Christian people, that teacher is the three-in-one and one-in-three God we call the Blessed Trinity. The mutual self-giving and loving communion of our triune God, has much to teach a world where our living and our loving are so fragmented; so in need of healing and so in need of transformation. Loving and Creator God, enfold us in your love, Jesus be with us on our journey, Spirit lead us to the truth. Trinity encompassing, Trinity encircling, Trinity protecting us all.