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Hope Springs Forth
Throughout the year, we have continued to celebrate the 90th anniversary of The Upper Room daily Read More
Mindy McGarrah Sharp | Read Psalm 80:1-7
Today’s text cries for deep, sustaining relief in a long season of loss. Such relief allows for more than one deep breath; it calls for a snack and a restorative nap even while the tumult continues. Deep, sustaining relief instills courage to be present, to abide in community, to ask...
God, remind me of your presence in the long stretches of struggle. Help me honor my tears and the tears of all creation. May the anger and rage I encounter prompt acknowledgment and action. Amen.
This week’s texts invite reflecting about depth as a practice not a product, a process not a destination. What does going deeper feel like? What does it require in a fast-paced world of split-second discernment about where and whom to engage? Isaiah goes to the king of Judah to prophesy about the boy called “Immanuel.” The psalmist cries out to God for restoration. Paul’s words root Jesus in the line of David. And Matthew tells of the angel’s visit to Joseph. These texts seek signs in depths, yearn for deep relief from ravages of war, recall deep generational and geographical connections, and stir deep stories of messy births in a messy world.
• Read Isaiah 7:10-16. When have you asked for a sign from God? How do you recognize signs from God?
• Read Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19. When have you been consumed by your own fuming grief and rage? How has this been acknowledged? In the presence of bitter tears, how do you start to imagine and pray for a different future?
• Read Romans 1:1-7. How do you hold together deep joy and deep trauma at Advent? How many generations and in what land(s) can you trace joys and aches backward and forward in time and place?
• Read Matthew 1:18-25. Who holds and tells origin stories in your community and in your family? Does your community tell stories about births? Where do they begin? What details about the risks, vulnerabilities, and wrestling around birth are included or left out?
Respond by posting a prayer.
