47 lines
1.4 KiB
Plaintext
47 lines
1.4 KiB
Plaintext
## 34:18
|
|
%% 4
|
|
> Near to the Brokenhearted
|
|
>> The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
|
|
|
|
Occasion: Grieving a broken family
|
|
|
|
Lord, the table is split now ---
|
|
names not spoken,
|
|
holidays planned in halves.
|
|
|
|
What once felt shared
|
|
has become something everyone approaches fearfully.
|
|
I don't always remember what I am allowed to remember,
|
|
whom I may miss out loud,
|
|
or how to love one person without seeming to betray another.
|
|
|
|
This grief is tangled with anger.
|
|
Some days I rehearse what happened
|
|
and imagine all the ways it might have gone differently.
|
|
Other days I am simply tired of the distance,
|
|
tired of carrying what no one knows how to mend.
|
|
|
|
Teach me what peace is still possible,
|
|
even when things cannot be forced back together.
|
|
Help me accept that these are not the same thing,
|
|
and that I cannot repair every fracture by wanting it badly enough.
|
|
|
|
Keep me from reliving old scenes,
|
|
or idolizing how it used to be,
|
|
or wounding others with the sharp sadness I carry.
|
|
|
|
Give me a place where truth can be said plainly,
|
|
where blame doesn't fill the whole room,
|
|
where small mercies are not despised.
|
|
Give me grace for the next conversation,
|
|
the next gathering,
|
|
the next moment when the absence is present again.
|
|
|
|
You know this table, Lord.
|
|
You know who is missing
|
|
and what each silence costs.
|
|
Meet me at this table ---
|
|
split as it is.
|
|
|
|
Amen.
|