“Especially now, in this time and place, many people are wondering where God is, as people have wondered throughout all great crises and tumults. Jacob’s prayer and encounter with God during the night reminds us that God is ever-present, even in the darkness, even when we are afraid or feel loneliness in our journey through life. God promises to be with us always.”
“Walking out into the fields, we knelt down in the loamy soil and knew we were literally reaping the benefits of someone else’s sowing, weeding, watering, and tending throughout the previous months—and the flavor that burst from these fruits and vegetables when we would eat them was like biting into the accumulated sunshine of spring and summer. It starts with fertile soil, though.”
“One of the things I have always wondered at in placing these two saints together on one feast day is the way that they often seem to be the yin and the yang of discipleship—where Peter is emotional and impulsive, Paul is analytical and holds himself rigidly in check. Peter is all heart and passion, whereas, much of the time, Paul is all mind and rhetorical prowess.”
“As we face rising COVID-19 surges again, and as we face more deaths of people of color in their homes and in the streets, never have we needed to pray “as we ought”—prayer where we listen to God, prayer where we seek God’s wisdom, prayer where we admit our faults and refusals to see injustices, and resolve to set our feet upon a better path. Prayer that doesn’t focus on what we ourselves hope to get but on what we can offer to the world to the glory of God. Prayer that is led by the Holy Spirit, if only we are brave enough to set her free within our hearts and our lives. Prayer that leads us deeper into community with each other, and strengthens us for the holy work with which God blesses us: to love each other in word, and love each other in deed, and love each other even if that means giving way in our own desires so that another may flourish.”
“This is the stuff of forgiveness, forgiveness that has counted the cost and benefit and erred on the side of grace, and we do not take it lightly. We cannot withhold the ebb and flow of compassion in our lives if we also remember the times it has welled up unbidden for us, as well.”
“Let justice roll down like a freshening river
and righteousness rise within us
like an ever-flowing stream
that we may care for our neighbors in your Name.”
“God is so mighty, as reflected through God’s works, that the psalmist underscores the absolute insignificance of humans (v. 5). Thus, God’s singling out of humanity is even more amazing and unmerited. The honor of God’s love for us places us just below the ranks of heaven (v. 6). “
“I have heard people claim that they don’t believe in miracles. And yet, they are all around us: the blaze of a rainbow against a dark prairie sky after a thunderstorm of percussive force. The firing of synapses, electric impulses timed just right, as a baby stands upright and toddles her first few steps. The frilled beauty of wildflowers, so easily discounted, but greater in loveliness than Solomon in all his glory.”
“I have watched doctors, nurses, and other staff continuing to do their jobs in the most trying of circumstances. We call them heroes—but too often we call people heroes but then are content to continue to put them in harm’s way.”
“..nurses are often the mainstays of spiritual care at the end of life, more now than ever when family, chaplains, and clergy are usually forbidden to be physically present with the ill. It is their resolute presence and faithfulness that breaks through our own feelings of helplessness and bleakness in the face of this worldwide crisis- fearless even when they lack the protective gear they need.”