Encouragement for our Muslim sisters and brothers (and others)

 

"Take a cold tater and wait."

 I certainly do like The Blind Pig & The Acorn blog and I hope that everyone will go there and like it as much as I do.

Please consider this if you feel that you're losing hope. Take your time; be gentle with yourself. And think about changing coats (see below).

High Road: "Two Coats" - Official Music Video

"Ride Out Your Storm"---A Song/Hymn For All Of Us

 

Five Prayers

The following are taken from a prayer group that I am a part of or some other source. They are not edited. 

Dear God, my heart will always rejoice when I think of your love and the Grace you have gifted me with. It is because of your Son, Jesus Christ, I am free from the power of sin and death. I no longer have to fear death and destruction or the threats of the enemy because I am resting and hidden in Christ. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Dear God thank you for your standfast love for us and where ever we are may you keep us on this journey and so we may find Christ love in us and show us how to serve one other and guild us though and keep our hearts pure before you o god for you called us to shine your light everyday so we may come fill circle and let the Christ light shine in all the world and may we find a deep peace in our lives and let god guild us and find his path and keep us faithful to his words and let the words of God seek us as we are in our hearts and minds and keep us strong though our journey and may we find God's light in us and around us so we may walk in God's ways and let our hearts and minds find peace and joy and love in God's blessing and may the blessing come to us and around us so we may find our lives in a better place and let our words and teach us to be faithful as we walk this journey together and Christ will follow us in so many ways and let us be open to you o god and find our ways in this journey. Amen.

"I hope these words of mine will be a blessing for everyone who reads them, or hears them, just as they have been a blessing for me as I write them. The hand of the Spirit is on you. It may be a gentle touch. It may be a reassuring hand. It may be a firm grip holding on for life. The important thing is: the Spirit is as close as a touch. Nothing can snatch you away. Nothing can separate you. Nothing can prevent you. You are under the protection of the single most powerful force in the universe. Whatever that universe brings you, the hand of the Spirit is on you."--The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston

Father, Help me to travel the path set before me. I know it may not be easy, but I know You will help me on my way. Amen.

Ramadan Mubarak!

 

When we fall...

 

Daniel-tude by Dr. Marcus Cosby

 

Just How Much We Can Bear (Tribute To The King) - GMWA Detroit Mass Choir

 

From "The Politics of Swearing" by Raj Bharat Patta & Posted on the Political Theology Network Blog

From The Politics of Swearing by Raj Bharat Patta and posted on the Political Theology Network blog:

Jesus did not try to pretend to sanitise his words for the sake of the religious world around him. This is what I call spirituality, where you can be your natural self, letting out your anger against injustice, expressing your intolerance against unjust practices without any pretense and verbalising your righteous anger against the person who exploits the innocent and kills those who speak against the powers. A spirituality of swearing lies in finding meaning and value in the so-called “irreverent.” Nadia Bolz Weber explains boldly that she seriously loves Jesus and she does swear a little, by which she navigates a deeper spirituality of her faith in Jesus Christ for herself and for folks out there who are comforted by ambiguity and who need a word of Grace which “is not covered in a strawberry syrup.”

(I'm only now discovering the Political Theology Network, but they look like they're doing a great job.) 

A prayer for patience...

 

"The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow!"

 

"Walk With Me, Lord"---Pastor Marshall of Jehovah Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C.

This touches me deeply. I hope that it also touches you.

Be Gentle On Yourself

 

Life will be beautiful....

 

Like a candle that they will remember and can find when they are in the dark...

 

Well, it may be simple but it isn't easy...

 It may be simple, but it isn't easy. Still, I know that we can do this together.

How Private Equity Firms Caused The UMWA Strike In Brookwood: A fundamental matter for people who are concerned about working-class religious and spiritual matters.

It seems to me that this is a fundamental matter for people who are concerned about working-class religious and spiritual matters.

Please support the strike! Send donations to:

UMWA STRIKE AID FUND

P.O. BOX 513

DUMFRIES, VA 22026

How Private Equity Firms Caused The UMWA Strike In Brookwood, Alabama

February 18, 2022

Source: Patch.com

Here’s an in-depth look at how ongoing business practices have impacted striking blue-collar workers for one west Alabama coal producer.

BROOKWOOD, AL — There’s a little wooden shelter at the intersection of Lock 17 Road and Miners Memorial Parkway in Brookwood that sat vacant on Friday. The site, which is scattered with weathered black and yellow picket signs supporting the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), was silent save for the bustle of traffic.

Severe storms had done a number on the picket line, which had been active for 325 days as of the publication of this story. The site’s portable toilet had been blown over by the wind and some of the ground signs were upended.

The empty picket line also stood in stark contrast to the operations directly across the road in the seemingly-busy offices of Warrior Met Coal.

But it was around the same time this reporter was leaving the site that Braxton and Haeden Wright, along with numerous other striking UMWA members, prepared to board a flight back to Alabama from Washington, D.C.

Read the whole story here.

Here is some wisdom that you may need...

This comes from the Seminary of the Southwest. I frequently lift videos from them because they hit home and because I think that they will help folks. The entire video is great, but if you're in a hurry and need to hear a message of hope that also questions so much of what is around us, go to 10:18 and give it a couple of minutes. If you need some peace, settle down and watch the whole thing. Things get more interesting around 29:39, and this is a very thought- and feeling-provoking Communion service. 

What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now?

I don't have political or social answers to these questions right now---the lists are so long and the subjects are so complex ad people who are much smarter than me write books about this. But on my individual level the list is pretty easy: ego, doctor's visits, bills that I can't pay easily, the grind that comes with having lived for 66 years in a world where my country has been at war and/or engaged in exploitation and oppression without a break for all of that time, these unending to-do lists, this oppressive daily busyness, certain unfulfilling commitments and many more that do help others and do fulfill but take energy and struggle.

What about you?