At the start of each year, I like to take the first 21 days to re-evaluate and adjust my spiritual practices, health, focus, and overall sense of well-being. This helps me to prepare myself to perform at my best, to face any challenges that come my way, and to love and be loved more fully.
Today, I was captivated by a conversation with Kate Bowler and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby on her podcast (Everything Happens with Kate Bowler) (Season 8 Episode 14)
In Kate’s post comments, she recapped a statement made by the Archbishop and stated the following: “He said something like sometimes you feel the love of God and sometimes you feel the love of a community, and if you’re very fortunate, you get both, but so often we are deeply lonely and scared that either God or people won’t show up, so I thought this might be a nice way to close us into the summer to bless us when we’re scared about having to face the hard things alone.”
It made me realize that for many, as they enter 2024, it is not just about thriving but also surviving. To my friends in either place, thrivers or survivors, read Kate’s blessing (provided below) slowly and see where God prompts you to be the do-gooder to the what if’r and if you are the what if’r may you know today, I see you and you are loved.
I see you working hard to overcome, I see you exhausted in the doing and in the being, I see your ledge, I see the burden on your shoulder, I see you manage the silence, grief, and struggle. But more importantly, God sees you. His silence is not His abandonment.
And today, I pray that many would come alongside you and be the do-gooder of your heart so that you may experience His nearness through them.
God what if
What if I walk out on this ledge and feel only the taste of my fear
What if I discovered that what I carry cannot be shouldered
What if I lived too long without that feeling that I can set this… this… this… down
God fill me with a love that staves off all the darkness, comfort me when I can’t think another reasonable thought…
And if I can’t, I mean I just can’t feel your nearness, hear you telling me that I love you
send your armies of do-gooders (When I first heard her share it I thought she said door cutters not do-gooders…and you know what sometimes we need those kinds of people too (smile))
tuck my name inside their hearts
give me people who love to hold more than this day can manage
and if you can’t send more than one because more than one would be nice, just send the nearest person to take things out of my hands and into theirs until I know again
today that I should never be expected to walk this road alone.
