Again, humbled

Finals are in two weeks so I don't have much time to spend with you all right now. However, I'd love it if you went over and checked out Baraka's blog. She asked me especially to comment about public prayer from a Christian perspective but I found that once I got there, I was blown away by the effort that some Muslims have to go through to fulfill God's commandments to them.

Here's part of one:

Perhaps it’s easier because I wear hijab. So either a potential employer won’t hire me out of ignorance/fear/racism, or, they will hire me and naturally expect to make accommodations.

Maybe it’s more difficult for those who aren’t as easily identified as Muslims. In the sense that when he/she is hired, the employer doesn’t have those expectations that the employee will need religious accommodation.

Imagine if you had to wear clothing that set you apart from everyone else to be granted the ability to pray during the day.

Many people commented on their discomfort doing ablutions (ritual washing) in public bathrooms.

Since then I’ve worked in academia, and that’s fine. I do feel uncomfortable doing wudu’ in the public bathrooms, so I just use the disabled toilet which has a sink there. It also makes washing myself after going to the loo much easier, so I always head to the disabled toilets wherever and whenever I can.

Actually, I only know what wikipedia tells me about wudu but I can certainly imagine that having to worry about other people when putting one's foot in the sink could be discouraging to actually feeling the presence of God.

I think the greatest feeling I come away with after reading the comments on her post is a sense of jealousy. I wrote:

We Emergents also recognize that, especially the non-Catholics and non-orthodoxes are lacking an element in our spiritual practices because there is nothing in our tradition that forces us to consider, discuss and reveal how the mundane has become more important than our dependence on the Divine on a daily and hourly basis, like you here have been doing. Devotion can always take a back seat for convenience’s sake for most Christians, which is revealing, I think.

It will be worth your time to look around Baraka's site a little bit. She is a stunning writer, willing to bare her fears and humanity in a way that not many bloggers do. I am a better person for keeping her on my blogroll.