For Krista
... and for you.
There is a prayer in the daily office that pleads “that I may not fall into sin nor be overcome by adversity.” There is something about that word overcome that falls from the tongue like a full stop, a period at the end of a word or a sentence that gives a note of finality. Overcome. And so often with adversity—things like unemployment, loneliness, despair, it is hard to find much more to say, much hope beyond that closed-off sense of ending.
And yet, as Scott Bader-Saye said at the King’s Interdisciplinary Studies conference last week, people of faith are the ones who are able to always say “and.” So it’s unemployment … and. Loneliness … and. Despair … and. There is so much grace in that one word, to be able to say, after even death, there is an “and” in the hope of resurrection.
Whatever the adversity you find yourself overcome by today, there is, even now, an “and.” May it find you as quickly and as certainly as the grace of God, in which we live, and move, and have our being.
5 comments:
...and thank YOU for THAT.
Love you, Beck.
Rebecca, I happened upon your blog looking for a specific post from a friend on James 1:27. It brought me to a post of yours from 2008, and then I came to your current postings.
This post was a breath of fresh air for me today, so thank you.
-Ryane
As I have been walking through the valley of death's shadow with a friend, I have been struck by how much precedes her "and" . . . despair, unemployment, grief and loss, risk of death . . .
and yet, the "and" still rings true . . . even when it seems so far off, with so much getting in the way of that "and".
thanks for this . . .
Beck-----------I always enjoy reading your blog! Love the insights! Mom
A lady I visited in hospital yesterday has just had a stroke and can't move or talk. She needs that "and..." of grace and hope. Thanks for your thoughts.
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