Blessed are we who wait with bated breath. who wait for something new to be born–for new hope or new joy or new life. Blessed are we whose patience grows thinner by the day. we who are tired of the world as it is—in all of its heartache and loss and hopelessness. We who want…
blessed are we, the fearful. though we long to be people of peace, we can’t liewe are afraid. afraid there wont’ be enough – enough resources, enough time, enough memories. blessed are we who ask You for wisdom, show us what to turn from, what to set aside. come Lord, that we might see you,…
Dear God, I always feel like the last one picked. The left out, the unclaimed. It’s hard to miss. My gifts are not welcome. My tears are not seen. My pain is not registered. I feel invisible. Jesus, when You walked among us, You became the one rejected. You were abandoned—even betrayed—by Your best friends,…
They ran eagerly, spreading their cloaks on the road as Jesus came, waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” This surely would signal the beginning of their deliverance, and the ending of their oppression, sorrow, and shame. What’s this? No mighty horse or chariot? Only…
It is an astonishing thing to behold:That a seed falls, and entombed there in the damp earthit swells and cracks open, unfolding to reveala tender root searching downward,a bright shoot rising upward toward the light,becoming this material wonder we call a plant. Just so, the physical body of Jesus was entombed, hidden away,along with all…
Lord, here I am. How strange it is, that some days feel like hurricanesand others like glassy seasand others like nothing much at all. Today is a cosmic shrug. My day planner says,rather conveniently,that I will not need you,cry for you, reach for you. Ordinarily, I might not think of you at all. Except, if…
Oh, God, this plague has already lasted so long and taken so much from kids and their teachers, and now pandemic pressures are rising all over again. Oh God help our kids and their teachers have a safe and strong and beautiful year. And He took the children in his arms, placed His hands on…
God, I feel it again, the burden of being human, and the fact that nothing will exempt us from the pain of it. Wherever you go, you bear yourself, and always find yourself.– Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, transl. Leo Shirley-Price, 1952. Blessed are we, Your human creatures,with mind and soul and spirit…
God, I feel it again, the burden of being human, and the fact that nothing will exempt us from the pain of it. Wherever you go, you bear yourself, and always find yourself. Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, transl. Leo Shirley-Price, 1952. Blessed are we, Your human creatures, with mind and soul and…
Blessed are we, the graced.We who don’t deserve it, whose failures haunt us, the things we said, the things we left unsaid, the decisions and addictions and broken relationships that have ripple effects we still feel today. Somehow, we are the recipients of this mysterious gift. grace doesn’t erase the pain or harm we’ve caused,…
Blessed are you, the pragmatic. You who have run the math and know what adds up… and what doesn’t. You have set it all down. you who don’t hope or dream or plan anymore because… what’s the point? But blessed are you, learning to live here. Your world has shrunk. Pain or grief or fear…
Blessed are you, who feel the wound of fresh loss. or of the loss… no matter how fresh… that still makes your voice crack all these years later. You who are stuck in the impossibility. Frozen in disbelief. How can this be? It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Blessed are you, fumbling around for…
End of content
End of content
