Good morning…
My dear friend’s husband died on Sunday night after a long, excruciating battle with a rare disease. He was just sixty-four years old. I am grateful this friend turned me onto the brilliant work of author Kate Bowler. It gives me great comfort knowing we both savored this holy blessing as we woke yesterday.
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A blessing for when the road is long by Kate Bowler
God, I could not have imagined
that this road could be
so long, so hard, so daunting.
Here I am, worn out—
body and soul.
Blessed are we, the weary
who must set aside
what we are carrying,
and begin to feel
only the weight of our own being.
It is enough for now.
Let our shoulders sink
from around our ears,
our breath grow longer and deeper,
taking a minute to notice
the way our diaphragm
rises and falls
without us telling it to.
Blessed are we who cannot go on…
not like this,
but stand and look and ask:
Is there a better path?
Blessed are we, at the point of utter stillness,
that becomes an empty space for
that voice to echo
and build and resound
until it becomes a place to rest
and receive
and be made whole.
And how blessed are we
who are astonished
to find that God’s strength
begins at the very point
when ours runs out.
Amen.
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God says there is one thing you can really depend on, and I believe it: “Strength comes from God!” (Psalm 62:11, ERV). Bonded in spirit, hour by hour, may God’s strength kick in when our own runs out.
…Sue…
