Thankful Everyday 2-27-25
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Today I give thanks for Lent. Lent is when we begin all over again. When we admit, as Kate Bowler tells us in her newsletter today, that we don’t have it all together and maybe we never did! And starting all over again is hard, damned hard.
As a country, we need to admit that we don’t have it all together – and maybe our country never had it all together either. But we have to begin. Again and again and again. As many times as it takes, we need to begin again, bringing our disparate selves together, starting over with each other.
Yesterday evening, President Trump addressed Congress, bragging about policies that hurt people. Thousands without hope for an end to war, others without jobs, still others without the means to purchase food and shelter, the prices of which are now skyrocketing. His first actions have sent immigrants – even legal immigrants – scrambling. And those from all marginalized groups are reeling to find their footing in this new world order. Chaos and fear rule the day.
In the hour before Trump’s address, my husband and I watched a PBS documentary about Harriet Tubman. What most struck me was how she heard God’s voice and saw brilliant images in her mind telling her what she needed to do – and then she followed that divine guidance. What if each of us, in whatever way, large or small, listened for that voice and then moved forward with courage and conviction?
We are now being called to move beyond the chaos and fear enveloping our country today. I’m not going to pretend to have answers for how we can do this, but I am going to use these forty days of Lent to reflect. I am going to use this time to listen for God’s voice in my own life. What is God telling me that I need to do – right here and right now? And, if I hear God’s instructions, I will pray for the courage to move forward – to do what I am being called to do, to make our country and our world a little bit better for all people, one step at a time.
May we all use the next forty days to listen for God’s voice and to find the courage we need to move forward with love.
