God
sometimes I think about
how much of my job
is listening to those
who are hurt
Sometimes I pray about
all those without ears to hear
Those who are quick to judge
or center themselves
or say, if they had just…
So…
I think about how often Jesus just sat
and listened, really listened
and validated people’s pain,
and then called them by name.
Sometimes I think about
how much of the community’s job
is listening,
Fiercely listening to those
who are unheard, or drowned out our ignored
Fiercely listening
who are hurt,
without judgement
or agenda
…just listening fiercely
to those who have been
especially hurt
and then I
try to practice
that fierce listening
taking to heart
the cries of injustice
opening my ears to hear
and my heart to be melted
Help me me to do my job I pray.
Amen.
Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Author: katyandtheword
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ.
She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible.
"Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal.
Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.
View all posts by katyandtheword
katyandtheword 