a blessing for the day we mourn our dead (All Saints’ Day)
o God, we have not been here before.
sorrows old and new envelop us
as we grieve in this new pandemic reality,
without hugs and funerals, shared jokes and fresh tears,
and graveside picnics to place flowers
for those long departed.
God, give us comfort that is bigger than all this,
and love that is stronger than all this.
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.
blessed are we who hold in our hearts
our beloved family and friends we have lost.
those who have loved so hard and endured so much,
whose earthly story has now been told.
o God, you alone know the whole of it.
You know their sufferings, their joys, their hopes,
their winding paths and every movement of their souls
and ours too, as our lives touched.
God have mercy.
blessed are we who grieve it all,
the missteps and missed chances.
take all our regrets into your great heart of love
and bear it away on wings of healing.
restore our souls, even as you receive theirs,
and welcome them into that heavenly reality
where the old has gone, the new has come.
where there is no more death, or sorrow or crying or pain,
but fullness of peace and unimaginable joy.
peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
John 14: 27
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.
child, God is holding you.
in life, and in death. you are loved.
“for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. now i know in part; then i shall know fully,
even as i have been fully known.”
1 Corinthians 13:12
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God, I don’t know how to say this any other way:
this is just too much.
i am in a body that needs healing,
in a world that needs healing,
and i am overwhelmed.
o God, please start it now,
the promised beautiful healing of the nations,
with me in it. i can’t wait any longer.
God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.
blessed are we who pray like a child:
o God, please help me feel better soon.
take away the pain I suffer,
and let me see good days again.
Alright my loves. I have a friend having a Very Very Bad Day. Which all of us with precarious health or circumstances understand.
I have my own rules for Very Bad Days. Please feel free to share your own.
1. Listen to beautiful, soul-filling music. Only comfort listens and old favorites are nice. No "I Wish I Had a River" lyrics here. Sorry Joni Mitchell.
2. Early bedtime. My mind goes from Disney to Nietzsche after 7 PM. If you can't trust your mind, give it a break. It might feel different in the morning.
4 anniversary of Trump's Access Hollywood audio and we Christians still have a lot to do to challenge the narrative that all pain - even pain we CAUSE - is a test
Take Billy Bush, for instance, describing how God may be involved in his part in Trump bragging about sexual assault
“I was kind of bopping along, and I don’t know if it was God or what that said, ‘OK, you’ve developed. You’re a pretty good guy. Let’s see how you handle this.’ And ka-boom! It all comes apart.”
- Billy Bush
On Twitter this was one of the great moments of reckoning for evangelical women leaders. Do they run the risk of "being political" and alienating their readership or do they take a public stand.
We know that many who chose to speak up lost a great deal of support and followers.