A Prayer of Lament

Standard

A Prayer of Lament

I lament.

In the wake of another school shooting, I lament.

I lament 17 lost lives.
I lament their families
their community
their classmates
their living memory of the dead.

I lament shooters.
I lament the loss of family so young
the absence of community ‘round him
the lack of realized love in his life.

Continue reading

EMPTY // Never Give Up on Giving Up

Standard

If you’re like me, then you may not have grown up hearing about or practicing Lent.  For those unfamiliar with this Christian season (and suspicious of anything new), here’s what you need to know: its practice is rooted deeply in three ideas presented in Scripture.

The first is that we came from dirt and it is to the dirt our bodies will one day return. It is a way of remembering our mortality, or finiteness, of the inescapable truth that we will one day die.

The second is that we are free to lean fully into our mortality during this season by joining Jesus in laying down our plays for power and significance and our greedy appetites. It’s an invitation to to lay down our life and pick up the cross daily and a series about the daily struggles to give up our own way of living in exchange for the cross shaped way of living. Continue reading