I remember staying up all night,
And waking up to the phone in my dorm
(landline, yes)
It was the 2nd week of Freshman Year.
And God, all I can remember
Is that everyone was so angry.
Because no one seemed to know
How to be sad.
Never Forget–
How to be angry I wondered?
As we marched off to war?
As I viewed the Holocaust museum in embattled Israel?*
As we became more embittered against Brown people.
And now,
After Iraq, and Afghanistan,
and a million Covid deaths later,
God, I think that maybe,
we are way more apt to get angry–
because we as a nation are not good at getting sad.
How often do I see our leaders cry?
How often do we encourage mourning?
So Today I’m glad that you are the God who weeps with those are weeping.
Today I’m glad that you affirmed
that
Jesus wept.
A tear for every life.
God does not need to get even for justice to be done.
And today, I am so thankful, for a God that weeps.
As I remember the first day,
that I realize that justice is so separate from anger–
and mourning is too.
So today, God, I think I’m going to concentrate on mourning,
and nothing else.
Please sit with me, again,
while I cry
whatever more tears
need to be cried.
Amen.
Feel free to share/adapt/use with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
If you enjoy my work, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing
*The Nationally Funded motto of all the museums in Israel is also Never Forget, which I discovered upon a pilgrimage there in 2010.
katyandtheword 
thanks