What a great start to my day! I saw the full moon still hanging in the morning sky on my drive today. I was reminded of the beauty all around me and the joy of knowing that His steadfast love is brand new to me again this day.

Then I opened a new book of prayers (sorry Joyce Johnson) and read this prayer about pain, suffering, and hope.

“As much as I would like to tune out, numb out, and check out, the gospel compels me to keep my heart present in the overwhelming distress and dimensions of the crisis in our world. …We have only our hope that you, our God, do not lie. In the cries of a whole nation of people, in the moaning of its fragile land, you bid us hear the faint but sure cry of hope…I abandon myself to your promise that one day the whole earth will be covered with the knowledge of the glory of God; one day the barren places will have trees again and those trees will clap their hands; one day desolate hills will seem like dancing mountains…because of this hope we will not tune out, numb out, or check out. We will seek to show up. Lead us, King Jesus. Lead us into your work of redemption and restoration. What will it mean to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with you in the broken places of our world?”