Dear God, help us.

Broken and Beloved.
I wrote a Lent series on this theme.
I thought it would be relevant.
Didn't realize how much it would be so.
Feeling broken.
Clinging to beloved.
(And, my Mom is an amazing artist)

"Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure." Psalm 23:4 The Message

Christ in your mercy, hear our prayer.

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed, making widows their prey and robbing the orphan.” -Isaiah 10:1-2

You cannot eliminate cancer research and pretend to be pro-life.

Thank you @revelizabeth.bsky.social for saying what our own denominational leaders have not said clearly enough. Sin will be called out and our siblings in Christ need more than our prayers. #lutheran #elca

What does liberty and justice for all actually mean?

Migration is deeply embedded in the human story, and I would argue a human right.

Would you find sharing the name of the church? I used to live in Valpo, and I'm curious.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. -excerpts from the Beatitudes

What did he do now?

Courage is the most important of all the virtues,
because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

— Maya Angelou

Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety Americans across the U.S. are celebrating King's legacy this weekend. One way to reflect on his life and message is by revisiting his celebrated 1963 speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial.

Here's a speech worth listening to today.

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." -John Wesley

"He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?"
Micah 6:8

Recrudescence.
An apt word at this moment in time.

"To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love
into slavery." - Octavia E. Butler

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth."

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

Second Sunday after the Epiphany.
The wedding at Cana in Galilee.
When things look bleak, God's abundance will not fail.
A good word for what is coming.

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over." Toni Morrison

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.