## 100:5
%% 4
> His Faithfulness to All Generations
>> For the LORD is good. His lovingkindness endures forever, his faithfulness to all generations.

Occasion: When God's goodness feels distant

Lord, all is quiet  
and I still cannot feel Your nearness ---  
just the chair,  
the window,  
the slow clock,  
the same prayer said again and again --- lifelessly.

I am tired of reaching for You  
and meeting what feels like empty air.  
I do not want to mistake silence for absence,  
but some days I do not know how else to understand it.  
I know that You are good.  
But sometimes that goodness feels very far away.

Show me Your goodness in a form I can recognize.
A small thing.  
Bread on the table.  
Kindness arriving at the right time.  
Strength to stand up and feel the sun.

I am not asking for everything to make sense.  
I am asking for enough mercy  
to carry me through this day  
without pretending it is easier than it is.

Do not let this long silence teach me that You are gone.  
Do not let numbness start to speak as if it were truth.  
And when I cannot feel what I believe,  
hold me through the distance between them.

Keep me near the simple mercies  
that do not shout  
but abide.

In this quiet hour,  
abide with me.

Amen.