God of rainbows Amidst the floods When we look for lost girls and RVs When we mourn dead camp directors And family members
When camps and houses and belongings are swept away With powerfully swept away
Remind us That you sit with us amidst
And when we cry out God where are you
You cry too
And that you Disarmed Your very self Hanging Your weapon Permanently in the sky
A proclamation that you are a God of Covenants Promises Peace and Love
not punishments
So that when we cry out “What have we done to deserve this?” You sweep us up In your love and care Snuggling us to sleep murmuring “Nothing, absolutely nothing”
and you help the absolutely best search doggies And you wipe the brows of the the emergency workers and volunteers and you sit and sigh with the wearied
And God You give us Patience and silence amidst us in unexpected encouragement
Because you are The God of Spaciousness Letting us Be our full selves
And so Be with us in our Grief our waiting and Our Empathy Be with us in our Love
For many waters cannot quench Love Nor can the Floods Drown it
Be the Love Amidst us That outlasts This flood We pray Amen
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka KatyandtheWord
Holy Spirit, we need to talk about this whole humanity thing.
Because I am plumb worn out from having existential crises about the human race!
Between pandemics, systematic oppression, the continual pursuit of power and principalities that screw the costs, and the whole the earth itself seems to be crying out from abuse thing, my head is spinning.
This is not to mention poverty, homelessness, neglect of those who are addicted, and the deaths of black and brown children, and I am reminded once again of the orphans which (again) have been created and abused by my very own government, oh and there’s a war in Armenia where my Aunt is located– I find I am bone weary.
Can these bones walk?
Holy Spirit, do you sometimes give humanity the side eye when you appear in bird form?
Because I trust in you. I trust God, and I love Jesus. This is not about that.
But I am dried out, cracked at the core when I think of humanity as whole.
I have found amazing human beings on earth. In the Singular I know individuals: gracious and forgiving ones, selfless and devoted ones, tireless and hard working ones. I love many-a-person…
But when it comes to humanity…
Well let’s just say I understand that whole flood thing better now.
Sometimes I wish I could do a reboot too, but we both know that doesn’t fix the inherent issues with being human
And so, here I am, stuck in an existential crises.
Why do we exist?
And, maybe the real existential question is this: if I know we can do better, how are we not doing better? Why?
Ok, but we have to try.
We have to show that those who are poor, or homeless are beloved.
We have to constantly interrupt racism and oppression, and plots to kill people or the neglect that lets people die. We have to stand up to power.
God, I remember a story in the Bible when someone asked Jesus a very political question about marriage, he basically said “that’s a human thing, God doesn’t care about such things”
Immediately this was followed up with a question about what does God care about, and Jesus responds with a simple “Love God, and Love each other” summary of, well, basically everything!
As always, when I have trouble loving other humans, I reground myself in loving you God.
Because I don’t know how to love humanity, and I don’t know why we are here.
So I guess I’m going to have to love you, and trust that you are continually helping us to course correct so that all things work together for good.
But right now, I’m going to snuggle under the covers, and tell myself that its ok that I don’t know how to process humanity’s existential crisis right now, because that’s not my job.
katyandtheword 