Dear pushers and consumers of Advent calendars: a 25-day countdown to Christmas =/= the season of Advent. The latter can be shorter or longer than 25 days, although both have been known to include chocolate and alcohol. 🙃🥂 Thank you for coming to my PSA.

Winter That year, we knew the sky existed

#poem:
"And we were each afraid
...afraid of memory,
since we had started to confuse the old days
with what we imagined lie ahead
and soon, we no longer knew whether life was just a wish."

poets.org/poem/winter-7

38. Shedding the Old Such as the lobster / cracking loose / from its exoskeleton

"this oracle invites you
to rewild yourself,
to unbox, detox, and de-
clutter your blood.
Break free from the mold
you made for yourself ...
Take
and give glee.
Summon surprise.
Something whim-
sical this way comes."

#poem: poets.org/poem/38-shed...

You're most welcome!

"This is what God showed me: the plum - the city of Cleveland - and God said, 'This is the end of the line.'" 😆

Dear #UCCsynod, did we really get through five days of "Into the Deep" without singing that church camp classic, "Deep and Wide"? 😆

Fun (if obscure) fact: Cleveland is also nicknamed the Big Plum. Maybe #UCCsynod 36 will have a fruit-related theme!

Must be time for #UCCSynod: I'm at a bar in a random city reading new church polity docs.

It’s amazing that any of us survive the daily death of disappointment, of dread,
of betrayal, of fear.

But still: you’ve loved today, haven’t you? So have I. And if we know love, are we not thriving richly against life’s odds?

rachelhackenberg.com/testimony/

Photos: See No Kings protests around the country People gathered for pro-democracy protests across the country today.

People gathered for pro-democracy protests across the country today.

The Bible has quite a few tales that highlight the problem(s) with kings: rachelhackenberg.com/problem-with...

Shout out, O God, and weep
for the wisdom of this age
that does not know or
wait upon your secrets:
mysteries
of abundance
and paradoxes of love.

Let dawn’s light
interrupt
midnight’s injustice,
that healing might emerge
as an oasis.

rachelhackenberg.com/mercies-ever...

#prayer: #prayer: Risen Jesus, forgive my tunnel vision of fear. Living Jesus, do not abandon me when I get lost in my own head and heart.
rachelhackenberg.com/recognition/

#GoodFriday #prayer: In these days full of shadows and crosses, O God who reigns over both death and life, be close to those for whom Good Friday is not a ceremony but a daily reality.

The Problem with Kings: "As often happens with the purchase of power, the oligarchs became discontent over time."

rachelhackenberg.com/problem-with...

#prayer for #PalmSunday: Let the gates of joy remain open for a long while, O Gracious God, so that even the weary ones and the shy souls might have a chance to enter.

rachelhackenberg.com/before-i-go-...

Let love prevail.

And prevail.

And prevail.

And still again prevail.

#prayer

New mercies, O God, for the barely-holding-on and the living-beyond-their-breaking-point. New mercies with every morning.

And for the grabbing-up-all-things and the destructive-for-pleasure, only a wasteland of dust and the heat of justice.

#prayer

#prayer: In these days of social torment and political torrent, keep my heart vulnerable and my spirit curious, O God of revelation.

#prayer: For railing against enemies louder than I love my neighbor, O God, forgive me.

A reflection on King Josiah and on us: rachelhackenberg.com/going-to-bat...

#ChristmasEve #prayer: Let there be rest for the weary, O God Most High, rest and peace to the brokenhearted, peace and pleasure for the despondent, and let freedom come like an angel to the earth."

rachelhackenberg.com/christmas-pr...