Daily Dose (February 17 – 20)
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 17 — Caring for others is music worth singing. It is the music of Grace. It is the music that brings people out of hiding, out of unease, and out of fear.
Songs that invite courage, and renewal, and resilience.
Songs that let us know; it is safe to come home.
This I know: I want a world where is it safe to come home.
I want to live in a world where fear is not the final word.
Although, if I’m honest, my druthers would be that this—a world alive with peace and compassion—all kicks in after life is tidy, and all straightened out.
That would be nice.
In the Post Office this week, I heard this conversation. “I’m trying to stay sane and healthy. Or is it healthy and sane. I’m not sure of the order.”
Of course, the first Noble Truth of Buddhism is that life is filled with suffering. So much for tidy. Or for my wish to eliminate sorrow.
The (very old) Sanskrit word for suffering is “Dukkha”. (It can mean stress, anxiety or dissatisfaction.)
The contrast is “Sukha”, which can translate happiness (which throws me because I’m not real certain what happiness looks like, except that it seems to describe someone other than me).
What is helpful to know is that these words date to a time when humans traveled by horse or ox drawn carts, and the words were literally used to mean, “having a bad or good axle.”
Okay, I love this. (Plus, I’m good at mixing metaphors.)
Yes, there will be ruts—life can be precarious, and unsafe, and at times without mercy—but it is the axle, (not the ruts), that determines the ride.
So. What is next?
Mother Teresa was asked where she found her strength, her focus, her fuel. The fuel, she explained, is prayer. “To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”
To be replenished is to be reminded of what is true, of what tethers us. This is not just someone saying, “you’ll be okay.” But to know, at our core, that we are safe, and we are home. And now we have something to draw on. And that means we have something to give.
Yes. And I say that’s the oil Mother Teresa is talking about. Our sanctuary is not just for solace, but also indispensable as deterrent. Because with sanctuary, we build immunity; to not be as easily susceptible to fear, or to being at the mercy of every threat.
And we are reminded of this when we hear the music that invites us home.
However, here’s the deal: our story doesn’t stop when we hear the song.
We leave different than when we came in.
And now, we sing (spill) the song to others.
The song gives us the power to change our paradigm. Yes. Even though there is suffering, the axle determines the ride. And the song always invites people home to safety. We saw it in the civil rights movement. And we see it now, in groups like Singing Resistance, in Minneapolis, MN, where they see music “as a vehicle for demonstrators’ grief, rage and strength”.
Yes, and Amen. This is music we share with our brother and sisters.
“When we choose to stay human—when we keep telling the truth, caring for one another, protecting the vulnerable, practicing restraint instead of revenge—we become carriers of a different future, even if we never see its fullness.
This does not mean we ignore injustice or accept harm. Benedictine communities were not neutral. They were ordered around values that quietly but firmly contradicted domination: humility over power, shared resources over hoarding, hospitality over exclusion, care over control. In times like these, courage does not always look like confrontation. Sometimes it looks like preserving what makes life worth saving.” Thank you, Rev. Cameron Trimble.
“When you extend an open hand, instead of a closed fist, you’ll be surprised by who takes that hand.” James Talarico (Texas State Representative)
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18 —
Prayer (poem) for our week…
Prayer for Refugees
“Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me.”
—Emma Lazarus
Companion of the Companionless,
let my day not go by without remembering
the sixty-five million people forced from homelands
due to poverty, crime and political conflict.
Home of the Homeless,
gather the shawl of your compassion
around those who have nowhere to abide,
nowhere to call home, nowhere to work.
Nurturer of the Impoverished,
turn the attention of political leaders
toward systems that cause oppression;
urge them to open their doors to refugees.
Comforter of the Injured,
the prophet Hosea describes your love
as that of a parent lifting a child to her cheek.
Lift, now, the demoralized and beaten-down.
Refuge of the Lost,
protect those who are tossed upon the seas.
Be near to those thirsting in the deserts
and roaming dangerous city streets.
Hope for the Hopeless,
lift up the heavy hearts of families
who have lived for years in camps;
do not let their hope slip away.
Justice Bringer,
Bother us. Keep after us. Open our eyes.
Widen our hearts. Change our judgments.
Urge us. Chase us. Badger us, until we act
on behalf of the sixty-five million people
whose tears fall on foreign soil.
Joyce Rupp, Prayers of Boundless Compassion
Photo… “Hi Terry, We long for spring in Atlanta but the bare branches do mean we get a spectacular view of our Lord’s glory. Happy your tech gremlins are on hiatus! As ever,” Amanda Marie, Atlanta, GA… Thank you Amanda… And thank you for your photos, please send them to tdh@terryhershey.com
Donation = Love… Your gifts make Sabbath Moment possible.
I am so very grateful.
Please Share Sabbath Moment with others.
And find it on Facebook @RevTerryHershey
