Ordinary Time

Pause

It’s ok to grieve, it’s ok to learn to fall. / It’s ok to believe, to admit that you’re human after all.

It’s ok to heal, all of those scars buried deep inside. / It’s ok to feel, to say all the things you’ve been trying to hide.

We are always in motion, like the winds, the tides, the ocean. / Everyday I’m born again, I wake up I feel that second wind.

We’re gonna be alright.

from “We’re Gonna Be Alright,” Switchfoot (2019)

Listen

I love the Lord because he hears my requests for mercy. I’ll call out to him as long as I live, because he listens closely to me. Death’s ropes bound me; the distress of the grave found me— I came face-to-face with trouble and grief. So I called on the Lord’s name: “Lord, please save me!”

Psalm 116:1-4

Think

In the past few weeks many of us have come face-to-face with trouble and grief. Sickness and death have felt all too near. Even those of us not directly touched by the Covid-19 global pandemic have been affected in other ways. I for one am very aware of different cries for help all around me.

Hospitals crying out for more protective equipment. Officials urging us all to stay home and “flatten the curve.” Parents and kids sharing their frustration as they adjust to being together at home 24/7. Churches struggling with being apart for Holy Week and Easter. Some of us are crying out to God, echoing those famous words of the Psalms “how long, O Lord?” and “Lord, please save me!”

Somehow, we trust that our cries do not go unheard. We know that our merciful God listens closely to us. Day by day, we begin to understand that while the pain, the sickness, the isolation are really hard, they will not last forever. And God is walking with us.

Peter Hanson

Pray

God of mercy, when I am in trouble, when my pain and grief are real, remind me again of what I already know: that you are the One who hears me, who knows me, who saves me. Amen.

Go

God calls you to venture where you cannot see the end, by paths never yet taken, through perils unknown;

Go with good courage, not knowing where you go, but only that God’s hand is leading you and God’s love is supporting you.