Thanks for your encouragement. To be honest, right now it is too raw. I wish I could feel hope, but sadly, I am finding it increasingly deceitful and irrelevant. Maybe tomorrow???
I cussed, I screamed, I cried and listened to endless gloom and doom on the news. Then I decided to take Jemar Tisby’s advice -“rest, grieve, lament. Today is for being frail and unapologetically human” Tomorrow I will resist
I think every day can—and should—be for being unapologetically human! There's tender strength in making room for grief and lament, which can and should exist alongside everything else.
I've been through quite a few expletives as well today! I completely avoided news and social media yesterday, and only checked the bare facts today before going mostly offline again. I know that I'm not ready to absorb all the various emotions from the people I love, so I've been isolating today. (I cleaned my house. My house is so clean right now.)
The past several months I've been dealing with health issues that always have me worried something is going wrong, and the techniques I've developed for dealing with that anxiety have carried over very well. Asking myself if there's anything I can do, and if not, actively trying to put it out of my mind. Making lists. Keeping myself fed, hydrated, and exercised. Imagining positive scenarios. Breath prayers. I still feel like I'm sleepwalking through a nightmare, but I'm reminding myself that I got let myself get through these emotions first before I can actually do anything.
Jeff, thank you for your beautiful writing, which hit the nail on the head. I'm holding onto the defiant hope shown by my grandmother, who lost two children - one to illness and one to war. In a culture which didn't value women, she was the leader who organized a monthly prayer vigil in her home so that other immigrant women could also worship. I am grateful for the gifts of writers like Maya Angelou, who remind me that in the face of things like these times, choosing hope and joy is an act of resilience and resistance. Also, there is this beautiful, simple prayer of Nadia Bolz-Webber which a friend shared with me: https://thecorners.substack.com/p/i-got-nothing-for-you-but-this-shitty
I’m just so sad. My husband died in May and you using the Micah quote just undid me. It was his favorite. Let us “do justice love kindness and walk humbly with God”
(Even though I’m mightily pissed off at God right now)
This morning I was looking for some wise words, and was hoping you would send some. Thank you for your words. I also feel “not optimistic but hopeful,” and I’m grateful for your phrasing that has given me one more tool for acknowledging what I feel today. Wishing you whatever peace is accessible today.
I am shocked, deeply saddened, fearful, concerned. I found comfort when I opened my email and there you were and there Kate Bowler was, along with Parker Palmer and Nadia Bolz-Weber. After a bit of grieving, I’ll pick myself up and get to the work of loving and protecting all people. I will work to make a difference.
This started off as a difficult week: we said good bye to our beloved cat, Grace, who was 14 and dying of large cell lymphoma, a very aggressive cancer. Then the election results. Staggering, disappointing, terrifying. I really wish things were different. But then, during Gracie's illness, I learned how brave and strong our little cat could be. If she could be, then, with God's help, I can be, too. God help us all.
I so needed this today. . .something from yesterday that made sense. . .and still does. And the smiling, innocent child and a practical hope (my garlic was planted last week) through anticipatory grief. Thank you, Jeff.
I am sad. Brokenhearted. But, I mean, I've been brokenhearted this whole time, really. I'm reading beautiful hopeful/heartbroken essays and texts. God's children comforting each other, reminding each other that this is not the first rodeo. Humans have survived these things before. And generations of the brokenhearted have carried the hope, beauty, and goodness of the Beloved Kingdom through history. So I will do my best to carry it with them.
I'm having trouble loving my neighbors who voted for a completely self centered criminal. I can't think of one Christian virtue that he possesses.
I am a senior citizen, thinking sorrowfully about my father and all the others I have known who put their lives on the line to protect our freedom. I feel ashamed of our country in it's relationship to the rest of the world.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is to love folks from afar, perhaps by praying for them. And as far as the president-elect goes, the one "virtue" he possesses is the one he shares with us all—his belovedness as a child of God. My hope is that, somehow, someday, he will experience the fullness, healing, and liberation of that love.
Sharon, this is exactly how I feel. I could not look my neighbors in the eye today and I know that I can’t hold that bitterness and let it fester, but I’m just finding it so, so hard today.
Numbness, dismay... I spent the morning digging up red oak seedlings in the vegetable garden and transplanting them to the hedgerow by the sheep pasture. This afternoon I will work on the little fox mittens for a grandchild and ponder how to make this world better for him. Thank you for your words- I wish you were my next door neighbor. Having attended two Why Christian conferences, I hear your voice as I read your thoughts.
Thank you, Jeff. Your words were the first I listened to this morning on IG. I saw the pain on many black women’s faces as I walked through the hospital corridors. I’m so upset! I hoped so much for a different outcome…one that might lift the burden for so many.
Deep sorrow here Jeff and hopes dashed. I love your idea here. And I’m an optimist person! But today I am all tears AND doing the next best thing and crafting with my little 5 and 3 yr old grands. Their little smiles are making me stop and breathe. My little Henrik just make a big pink heart for me!” I was hiding my tears and this made me smile. They deserve my presence so I will be here.
By “not optimistic but hopeful,” I mean that I don’t believe things will just work out on their own. With God’s help and our faithful collaboration, we can do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. This will be, I am convinced, the only fruitful way.
Thanks for your encouragement. To be honest, right now it is too raw. I wish I could feel hope, but sadly, I am finding it increasingly deceitful and irrelevant. Maybe tomorrow???
There's always tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.
I cussed, I screamed, I cried and listened to endless gloom and doom on the news. Then I decided to take Jemar Tisby’s advice -“rest, grieve, lament. Today is for being frail and unapologetically human” Tomorrow I will resist
I think every day can—and should—be for being unapologetically human! There's tender strength in making room for grief and lament, which can and should exist alongside everything else.
I've been through quite a few expletives as well today! I completely avoided news and social media yesterday, and only checked the bare facts today before going mostly offline again. I know that I'm not ready to absorb all the various emotions from the people I love, so I've been isolating today. (I cleaned my house. My house is so clean right now.)
The past several months I've been dealing with health issues that always have me worried something is going wrong, and the techniques I've developed for dealing with that anxiety have carried over very well. Asking myself if there's anything I can do, and if not, actively trying to put it out of my mind. Making lists. Keeping myself fed, hydrated, and exercised. Imagining positive scenarios. Breath prayers. I still feel like I'm sleepwalking through a nightmare, but I'm reminding myself that I got let myself get through these emotions first before I can actually do anything.
Thank you for the words of encouragement.
Grateful for you, for your words and your tenacity.
Jeff, thank you for your beautiful writing, which hit the nail on the head. I'm holding onto the defiant hope shown by my grandmother, who lost two children - one to illness and one to war. In a culture which didn't value women, she was the leader who organized a monthly prayer vigil in her home so that other immigrant women could also worship. I am grateful for the gifts of writers like Maya Angelou, who remind me that in the face of things like these times, choosing hope and joy is an act of resilience and resistance. Also, there is this beautiful, simple prayer of Nadia Bolz-Webber which a friend shared with me: https://thecorners.substack.com/p/i-got-nothing-for-you-but-this-shitty
I love Nadia's prayer. And I, too, travel with the memory of my ancestors, particularly my grandmothers. Godspeed.
I’m just so sad. My husband died in May and you using the Micah quote just undid me. It was his favorite. Let us “do justice love kindness and walk humbly with God”
(Even though I’m mightily pissed off at God right now)
Grief upon grief-- I'm so sorry. Also, I wholeheartedly believe that God can and will absorb the full fury of our anger, so let rip.
I just want to re-awake to a day with a different result.
Me too!
This morning I was looking for some wise words, and was hoping you would send some. Thank you for your words. I also feel “not optimistic but hopeful,” and I’m grateful for your phrasing that has given me one more tool for acknowledging what I feel today. Wishing you whatever peace is accessible today.
Whatever peace is accessible. Love that wording. Thank you.
I am shocked, deeply saddened, fearful, concerned. I found comfort when I opened my email and there you were and there Kate Bowler was, along with Parker Palmer and Nadia Bolz-Weber. After a bit of grieving, I’ll pick myself up and get to the work of loving and protecting all people. I will work to make a difference.
This started off as a difficult week: we said good bye to our beloved cat, Grace, who was 14 and dying of large cell lymphoma, a very aggressive cancer. Then the election results. Staggering, disappointing, terrifying. I really wish things were different. But then, during Gracie's illness, I learned how brave and strong our little cat could be. If she could be, then, with God's help, I can be, too. God help us all.
I so needed this today. . .something from yesterday that made sense. . .and still does. And the smiling, innocent child and a practical hope (my garlic was planted last week) through anticipatory grief. Thank you, Jeff.
I am sad. Brokenhearted. But, I mean, I've been brokenhearted this whole time, really. I'm reading beautiful hopeful/heartbroken essays and texts. God's children comforting each other, reminding each other that this is not the first rodeo. Humans have survived these things before. And generations of the brokenhearted have carried the hope, beauty, and goodness of the Beloved Kingdom through history. So I will do my best to carry it with them.
Sending texts, walking dogs, planting pansies, scrubbing floors, and brining pork chops.
Thank you, Jeff, as always for your good word to us.
I'm having trouble loving my neighbors who voted for a completely self centered criminal. I can't think of one Christian virtue that he possesses.
I am a senior citizen, thinking sorrowfully about my father and all the others I have known who put their lives on the line to protect our freedom. I feel ashamed of our country in it's relationship to the rest of the world.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is to love folks from afar, perhaps by praying for them. And as far as the president-elect goes, the one "virtue" he possesses is the one he shares with us all—his belovedness as a child of God. My hope is that, somehow, someday, he will experience the fullness, healing, and liberation of that love.
Sharon, this is exactly how I feel. I could not look my neighbors in the eye today and I know that I can’t hold that bitterness and let it fester, but I’m just finding it so, so hard today.
Numbness, dismay... I spent the morning digging up red oak seedlings in the vegetable garden and transplanting them to the hedgerow by the sheep pasture. This afternoon I will work on the little fox mittens for a grandchild and ponder how to make this world better for him. Thank you for your words- I wish you were my next door neighbor. Having attended two Why Christian conferences, I hear your voice as I read your thoughts.
Thank you, Jeff. Your words were the first I listened to this morning on IG. I saw the pain on many black women’s faces as I walked through the hospital corridors. I’m so upset! I hoped so much for a different outcome…one that might lift the burden for so many.
Deep sorrow here Jeff and hopes dashed. I love your idea here. And I’m an optimist person! But today I am all tears AND doing the next best thing and crafting with my little 5 and 3 yr old grands. Their little smiles are making me stop and breathe. My little Henrik just make a big pink heart for me!” I was hiding my tears and this made me smile. They deserve my presence so I will be here.
By “not optimistic but hopeful,” I mean that I don’t believe things will just work out on their own. With God’s help and our faithful collaboration, we can do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. This will be, I am convinced, the only fruitful way.