Devotional

Eternal God, help me to see the wrong
In what I think is right. Help me to be
The version of myself that You can see
That brings my human weaknesses along
(Recalling good does not quite equal strong)
But turns them toward the best consistently
Striving to become a better me
In whom Your image may, at last, belong.
Help me to see my flaws and never flinch
While seeing in my enemy the good
That he intends, and how he does Your will.
Let me improve my own self inch by inch
To be the person that You know I should
And in pursuit of justice never still.

Meditation

Sometimes I wonder why I worship God
And then I see the beauty in the world--
The orcas cresting in a joyful pod,
A newborn ferns first tendrils now unfurled,
A stationary stormcloud on a hill--
And I remember, for a little while.
But in the face of such enormous ill
As stalks the land, it's difficult to smile
Even at the beauty. Orcas die;
The old-growth forests where the ferns live fade;
And stormclouds dash their beauty from the sky.
Beauty lives, it seems, to be unmade.
But then the cycle of the Lord still turns:
New calves are born, and rain brings forth new ferns.