Pastor Amy's Thursday Thoughts

During this fourth week of Lent, let me share with you all a blessing that was part of our Lent 311 Bible studies this past week. This blessing points to the complexity of life - that we hold within ourselves both our broken parts and our whole parts, our hurts and our joys. But, even more importantly - God holds all these parts of us within God’s love.

As you walk this path to Easter, may you find comfort in God’s presence.

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

Blessing for Stretching Your Heart

God, my life has too many things.

Awful. Lovely. Full. Shockingly

incomplete.

Will you help me learn

to live with a greater

capacity for this?

Living in the tension

between a life that has

worked out..

and one that has

gone to hell in every handbasket.

Let today be a divine exercise

of yes….and.

Yes, I have so much

to be thankful for,

and this hasn’t turned out like I

thought it would.

Yes, I feel moments of joy,

and I have lost more than I could

live without.

Yes, I want to make the most of today,

and my body keeps breaking.

Yes, I am hopeful,

and this is daunting.

Yes, I am trying to be brave,

and I feel so afraid.

So bless me,

trying to live in between

those two words:

yes…and.

May I understand this is where

the real work of life is found.

Where it takes courage to live.

Where grief can strip me

to the studs and love can

remake me once again.

Where my heart can be both broken

and keep on beating.

Never sorry to have broken at all.

Yes…and.

Make me capable of great joy,

great love, great risk, even fear,

as you expand my heart

with this yes…and today.

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