Lenten meditation: A Prayer for a Hard Time

photo by Melissa Baldwin / Flickr

This morning on there eve of the Health Care vote --thinking of this new budget--I opened my Bible to read the lessons for today. I don't always do this...I should but the everydayness just sometimes covers it all. I remember Carlyle Marney saying, "When I get into trouble I always turn to the Psalter." Today these words from a Psalm spoke to me. Maybe they will speak to you too.



"O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
Even now your enemies are in tumult; those who hate you have raised their heads,
They lay crafty plans against your people;
They consult together against those you protect
They say, 'Come, let us wipe them out as a a nation;
Let the name of Israel be remembered no more.'
They conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant...
Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek your name, O Lord.
Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
Let them perish in disgrace.
Let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord,
Are the Most High over all the earth." (Psalm 83. 1-5,16-18)


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Maybe Langston Hughes' poem, "Mother to Son" says it in another way:


"Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair,
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places wth no carpet on the floor--
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turning' corners;
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall down now--
For I'se still going', honey,
I'se still climbin'
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair."

photo by Linda Dee 2006 / flickr

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com