Psalm 142:3

When my spirit is faint, you know my way.

When my spirit is faint,

when the Holy Spirit seems

more like the Holy Ghost,

Her presence muted,

phantom-like and fleeting,

Her grace and love, incorporeal,

incapable of being held,

when I am ready to turn my back

to it all and walk away rather

than risk being hurt again,

when I run from You, Lord,

when I leave the path, You

have set before me,

when I run into the darkened

woods and find myself lost now

in the brambles and shadow pines,

I remind myself of this …

You know my way, Lord.

And I am not lost from You.

I am the sheep. 

You are the shepherd.

You know my way.

And nothing—nothing—can

separate me from You.

You will always bring me home.

In my weakness and lost in the darkness,

I cry out to You, Lord—I cry out

one last desperate plea to be saved.

I cry—no words and sometimes my cry

is a howling pain and sometimes it is silent

as the spirit within me—yes—grows faint.

I cry out to You, Lord, and You come,

because You always come,

because You will never leave us

alone in that darkness. 

You will never leave us lost

no matter how many times

we run away.

You know my way, Lord.

Find me now, I pray.

Amen.

Romans 8:9

The Spirit of God dwells in you.

The Spirit of God dwells in you.

You are the Lord’s dwelling place.

You are where He rests His head at night.

You are who He comes home to.

You are His beloved.

To you He is always faithful.

You are the one He believes in.

You are the one He trusts completely.

No one knows you better.

No one will ever know you better.

His love for you is ever growing.

It fills and stretches the very

boundaries of the universe.

He carries your picture, bent, folded and faded,

in His wallet and shows everyone He meets.

He delights in everything you do.

And in the night, in the darkness and in the silence,

when you are too afraid to say His name,

when you are worried your spiritual well has run dry,

when you’re afraid the only answer you’ll receive is an echo,

He reaches out.

He places His hand over your heart.

He begs you to breathe.

He begs you to feel

the warmth of His spirit washing

over you, filling you to overflowing.

You cannot trouble God.

You cannot overstep.

Ask and you will receive. 

You are His home.

And you, He will never leave.

Amen.

Jeremiah 31:3

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

I am loved with an everlasting love.

I am loved.

Even now, I pause and close

my eyes and embrace these words.

I hold them close to me as I take a deep

breath and let Your essence, Lord, fill me.

Essence of the Spirit, distilled and pure,

fills every cell of me, oxygenates my soul,

and gives me that strength I need

to wake and race the rest of the world

to that mountaintop where I can touch

the sky and tickle the toes of angels.

I am weightless when I am filled

with Your love, Lord.

I am weightless and I can fly.

I can soar above the eagles.

The heavens shower me with stardust

that clings to me like pollen.

Each particle sings to me the song

that gave birth to the universe,

and for a moment I know what

it means to live,

what it means to be Your child, Lord,

created with love and born from love.

You have loved me— 

You have loved us with an everlasting love,

a love that outshines the stars themselves.

Oh … how we are loved.

Amen.

Jeremiah 31:2

The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.

Lord, Hagar found You

in the wilderness.

She found You

when she was lost.

She found You

when she was broken.

She found You in the midst

of being overwhelmed by

fear and by loneliness. 

She found You, Lord, when

she thought she was forgotten,

a ghost already, drifting, invisible,

her son already orphaned.

She found You and she named You.

You are the God who sees me.

Lord, I too have wandered

the wilderness.

I too have been afraid.

I too have felt forgotten.

But, I too have found You,

and I know that You see me.

I know that I am seen.

You are Grace, Lord.

You have always been

Love,

and You have always been

Hope,

but now I see, You, Lord,

and I know that You are Grace.

It is Grace that follows me

into the wilderness when

I have lost hope and feel unloved.

It is Grace that sits with me

through all the hours

of my darkest nights

and takes my hand

and strokes my thumb

and does nothing,

and does everything,

just by being there.

Grace is unafraid,

is unashamed of me,

of the wilderness inside of me.

Grace follows me into

the wilderness, into that barren,

dry furnace of a landscape,

and digs her fingers into

the sand and fills those troughs

with living water,

digs her fingers into the sand

and fills those holes with

new seeds and life.

Grace washes me clean

with the waterfalls of redemption

and reveals, finally, my true self,

so that I might be seen,

so that I might see, finally—

Me.

Amen.

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—

Grace is forgiveness

in advance.

It is unearned.

It is the product of

unconditional love.

Grace, like the sun,

is a renewable resource.

It is always on, though it falls

upon each of us differently.

Even when we are in darkness,

even when we cannot see it,

grace, like the sun, still shines.

It still warms.

It still blesses the world with life.

Grace is the engine

of love.

It fires up our spirits

when we have left our souls

out in the cold for far too long.

It is our spiritual defroster

when our hearts have turned to ice.

It is the antidote to

compassion fatigue.

Grace says yes, it’s time

to love again.

Grace is a gentle touch.

It is a mother’s hand, wiping

the tears from your face.

It is the same hand that pulls

up the covers and tucks

you in for the night.

It is the lingering kiss on

your forehead when you

are sick and wrestle in

your sleep with fever dreams.

Grace promises to stay forever

no matter what,

to love always

no matter what,

to care always

no matter what,

to show kindness

no matter what,

to walk with you, to carry you,

to cry with you, to laugh with you,

to live with you and love with you,

no matter what.

Always.

Amen.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

Because of grace,

I am free

to walk this life,

unburdened

by the chains I have

forged

and carried about like a

ghostly Jacob Marley.

Because of grace,

those chains

of bitterness and anger,

of arrogance and judgement,

of hesitation and self-doubt,

have fallen away,

link by link,

leaving a trail for others

to follow

on that road to salvation.

Because of grace,

my only carry-ons

for this journey

are filled

with hope and love,

and weigh

next to nothing at all.

In fact, it is love that lifts me,

and hope that drives me,

and now, not only do I have

the strength

to weather those many storms

while lost at sea,

but I have the vision to see that

that shadow,

sitting on the horizon, is land,

and I am home now and can breathe.

Amen.

John 21:17

"Do you love me … Feed my sheep.”

If you love me.

I will feed Your sheep, Lord,

even as you feed me.

I will not walk on by those crying

for help.

I will not look the other way.

I will not cross to the other side

of the street.

I will not walk with a heart

filled with shame.

I will walk with a spirit

full of grace.

If you love me.

I will share my bread with

the least of these and more.

I will share my time with

those who have little left.

I will bring the warmth of Your spirit,

Lord, to those left alone and freezing

in the night.

I will give everything, Lord,

and when I am spent, I will sit

with Your sheep and give

them five minutes more.

If you love me.

I will speak one word—

Hope.

I will whisper Hope to those

who are shouting.

I will shout Hope to those

who are sleeping.

I will sing Hope to those

who have lived far too long

without feeling that song

of creation stir within them.

I will feed Your sheep Hope, Lord,

and when they are ready,

when their hearts can handle more,

I will feed them love.

Amen.