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Thoughts and Prayers
Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. – Psalm 79:8-9 (NRSV)
Vague spirituality is common in the wake of public tragedies. Politicians send generic “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of a mass shooting. Pastors add the tragedy of a flood to the endless list of “thoughts and prayers” in the bulletin. Journalists publish analytical “thoughts and prayers” about wildfires and hurricanes and starvation within the rush of a news cycle. Many of us publicize our “thoughts and prayers,” too: Substack essays about whether to mourn or to rage; Facebook posts about whether to set politics aside or to organize with partisan passion; tweets that sympathize and tweets that blame.
Explicitly woven throughout the massive word cloud of so many thoughts and prayers: a cry for compassion.
Implicitly understood in our thoughts and prayers: a certainty that we (collectively) will not be convicted by the iniquities of this tragedy, or the next one, or the next one.
Because vague spirituality prefers not to remember past sins or to contend with present wickedness.
Vague spirituality prays for deliverance from our unresolved histories but not for resolution itself, and certainly not for reparations.
Vague spirituality talks a lot about speedy compassion, in pursuit of shared forgetfulness.
Vague spirituality is Psalm 79:8 without Psalm 79:9—a prayer for relief without a desire for salvation.
Salvation does the hard work of holistic relief, not swept-under-the-rug consolation. Salvation is relief plus remembrance. It is compassion plus reparation. It is grace plus accountability. Salvation is a prayer wed to an ongoing commitment. Salvation is a thought born of disillusionment and confession, enfleshed in grace and humility. Salvation seeks the glory of the holy whole, not the Band-Aid of the few.
Prayer: Forgive me, O God. I have no prayers for the wicked and little hope for their redemption. Turn my thoughts to a holier and whole-ier salvation, for your name’s sake.
cross-published with the UCC Daily Devotional
People-Pleasing
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. … And without faith it is impossible to please God. – Hebrews 11:1-2 & 6b (NRSV)
All my life, I’ve believed I’m not a people-pleaser.
Then I started paying attention to my emotional relationship with email: The guilt over every message collecting dust for lack of a reply. The assumption of anger in an email’s tone. The avoidance of a message if I cannot immediately meet its need. The projection of disappointment, the perceived obligation to acquiesce, the default of an apologetic tone.
I walk on eggshells around email like it’s my ex-husband: unpredictably volatile, a landmine of overwhelming and unrealistic demands that will explode if not pacified.
Meanwhile, I manage 4 personal inboxes and 5 professional inboxes, which is a lot of ex-husbands to placate.
And here comes Hebrews 11, harboring a dilemma that is intimately familiar to us people-pleasers and fawners: “How can we secure approval from Someone who is impossible to please? How can I be certain Someone is content with me?”
“Faith” is not the answer to our search for certainty that God is pleased. Faith is the mechanism by which we dare to ask, “Does God require pleasing?”
Is not God already pleased? Pleased to set healing before us? Pleased to plant hope within us?
Is not God already abundant in pleasure—in the delights of heaven and earth, in the invisible that waits to unfold?
Eggshells and insecurity are but for a moment. God’s love is for a lifetime. Disappointment may linger for the night, but unrestrained-by-external-expectations joy comes in the morning.
Prayer: Lead us not into anxiety, and deliver us from email.
cross-posted on ucc.org’s Daily Devotional
Heart and Soul
Here is my heart, O Holy Life: ancient with the dust of stars, new as the day I was born. What use can it possibly have if it beats only for itself? Here is my soul, O Mystery: reluctantly tethered to flesh, marked with scars and calluses. Who else can recognize it...
Sunset
Light runs out before love is finished -- some days, I think, even before love begins -- and the horizon blazes with the angry grief of time we wish we'd had, moments we missed, stories we didn't begin to write together or could've written differently if the sun had...
Easter Feast
Who will break the fast? Joyful Jesus, how dare we continue to feed upon scarcity when there is a rich feast spread over endless banquet tables so that all who are hungry may know peace? We raise a glass to you -- Holy Abundance, Open Invitation, Broken Bread....
Harrowed
I'm not interested in your pain having purpose, my Friend, only in the space to grieve what has been done to you. Let no one call these harrowing days a hallowing. The broken flesh is not a fruit to harvest. The tortured earth is not a fortune to reap. The spilled...
Pit of Despair
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. - Psalm 31:9-10 (NRSV) I do not wish...
Hyssop
Sprinkle death with truth, O Mercy, to dispel its plague upon the living. Mark every doorway with wisdom to guard against violent hatred that courses through the streets. Purge evil with fragrant hyssop. Bind up broken spirits and bones with cleansing joy. Make of...
Upstream
To make my way to the Source, I pray, and to understand how it carves through the rock and reshapes the earth along its holy path; I pray to meet the One who loves the path -- its movement more than its destination -- and to learn the patience of unknown ends; To...
Whispers
I hear a voice I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I rescued you. - Psalm 81:5b-7a (NRSV) I’ve never felt close to God in a personal buddy-buddy kind of way. It’s never been my...
Telling Trauma’s Story
Book publishing and church pastoring share a vocational aim: meaningful storytelling. A book can change your life with its story. So can the church. The church can mold your personal story, help you make sense of good and evil, shape your imagination for what is...
