The air conditioning system of the car broke down while driving here. But not only in the car: in the whole world. This is what we, 2,500 people can feel in Tata, giddily in the burning sunshine. Tomorrow will be the hottest day, hotter than today, though today was much hotter than yesterday.
The stain of sweat complains like an exclamation mark on the back of people. The room is air-conditioned, but the key is taking a boat cruise on the Old Lake of Tata with the international guests of the Reformed Youth Festival. Often it happens that nothing can give us relief, so it is waiting that remains, waiting for the key or for the sunset, to make this desert climate not last forever.
Here we are, two and a half thousand walking exclamation marks: give us relief, our Lord!
Here we are, two and a half thousand, and I am wishing so much that we become walking exclamation marks, relief in this overheated, close to exploding world. To enable us to trust, where there is lie, to seek life and not the proofs of the impossibility of living with trust. To enable us to tell of what we believe: that we cannot either live or die without trust. That we cannot either live or die without God, who trusted us with His most precious treasures: the created world, the other people, finally Himself in Jesus Christ. He trusted us, with our free will to make decisions about everything, right or wrong decisions. Often wrong.
We feel dizzy in this world that is unable to calm itself down, passion glows, and if we are not careful enough, it sets on fire on those places, where the drought has already killed all moisture a long time ago.
Help us, Lord, those who are here, become not only exclamation marks, but the river of living water, who seek and pass on Your refreshing, life-giving presence. Help us to face no catastrophe that cannot be blown away, help us so that no dried out life exists, that cannot be revived by Your word. Help us, that the exclamation marks themselves get refreshed.
Bagdán Zsuzsanna (Translated by the Ecumenical Office)