Fifty Days of Gratitude: Day 16

Just a reminder that I am writing in this Easter Season about those things for which I am grateful. Know that you are among them, dear ones. Because of the parameters of this site, I am unable to send daily posts, so this daily writing lives here, on Substack: https://stillhotunderthecollar.substack.com/p/fifty-days-of-gratitude-day-16

Here's todays' post, shared at the normal Monday morning musing time:

Dear Ones, yesterday was such a full day.  This is truly, as I’ve alluded to here before, one of the most difficult seasons in ministry that I have ever endured. And in life. And yet, there is so much joy.  So much.  I cannot say this enough.  From the sweet kids to the confirmation student who answered the prompt “Jesus Is” with “French?”  There is so much joy.  From the wise elders who share deep wisdom to the visitor who was thrilled to have found a “singing church”. From the people I see dependably week after week to the snowbirds who are beginning to return to our community. There is so much joy. 

We still have joy, after all the things we’ve been through, we still have joy.  

And kindness.  Oh, we have so much kindness among us.  Often when people ask how I’m doing, I’ll answer with some vagueness.  I’m ok today.  I’m getting by.  Sometimes I’ll even use the old Norwegian response I’m upright and not crying”.  But there are times I can’t use that one because the tears still come unbidden and there is nothing I can do but let them.  

Yesterday, some incredibly kind people asked how I am doing and the tears came immediately and the words with them: This is grief upon grief.  And that is how this all feels.  Grief upon grief.  And these very compassionate people said: we see you.  We see how this is for you.  And we are here for you.  And oh, it was the balm I needed in that moment.  And later, in a parking lot conversation with a parent picking up their child, that mom said, seemingly out of nowhere “I don’t think people who haven’t gone through this have any idea what grief does to a person.”  

Kindness is popular right now as an idea or a slogan on a shirt or a sticker.  But kindness in action, well, I’m pretty sure that kindness in action is what is keeping the world from just spinning off of its axis and into the vast interstellar universe.  Kindness matters.  It does.  Kindness to strangers and kindness to the people who live in our homes and kindness to the people with whom we work and worship.  

I love the final blessing we used at Bruce’s memorial service.  We use it at Gloria Dei, too.   It reminds us to be kind, and as a recipient of such kindness, I am grateful. 

Life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who make the journey with us.  So be swift to love.  Make haste to be kind. And the blessing of God, who made us, who loves us, and who travels with us, be with you now and always.