A Blessing For Rethinking

These days, so many of us are rethinking things. What does a balanced life look like? How do I return to activities and relationships that I value without being overwhelmed? Some of us are engaged in rethinking because of the pandemic. Others of us are doing so because our jobs have changed or been eliminated. Others of us are facing life-changing circumstances in our own lives and/or the lives of those we love.

Kate Bowler, the author of Everything Happens for a Reason (and other lies I’ve loved) has a blessing for such a time.

God, this is a time of major rethinking of all that my life means.
Help me, guide me.
This is what the LORD says: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. Jer. 6:16 NIV

blessed are you who take the risk
of standing still right at the point of change,
though uncertainty and stress want to propel you forward.

blessed are you, standing there at this new crossroads,
giving yourself permission
to stay suspended awhile in the questions:
maybe this isn’t…
maybe i don’t want….
maybe i need….

suspended in the reimagining,
discerning until you find
that the thought-threads of ‘what-if’
lead you to a settled ‘if-then.’
and you know it’s yours.

blessed are you, gathering what you need
to move forward in this new awareness,
this new peace.

with deep truth comes a deep and settled calm.
you’ll know it when you see it. (https://katebowler.com/blessings/ )

I love Kate’s permission to stay for a while in the place of not knowing. In my experience, some of God’s best work is done when we are willing to wait in that place.

What are you rethinking these days? How do you see and experience God in that process?

-Written by Rev. Amy Miracle