Every single day

As we work through a series of the Psalms during this Lent and Easter season, I encourage you to engage with the process of Sacred Reading in your own time and space. You might want to consult the Sacred Reading podcast if you need some guidance through the process. Or feel free to send me a message.

Here is the final reading of Holy Week, with some thoughts from me below.

Today’s passage:

From Psalm 23

Nothing but goodness and kindness
can pursue me through my life
when I turn to You, Beloved,
every single day.

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Please take space for your practice of Sacred Reading.

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At the beginning of this week, I went on a walk through the Gotteron Valley near Fribourg — in legend home to a dragon, in later times a source of steam power for mills, now a well-loved scenic hiking route. For more than an hour I walked through the steep sided gorge, unable to see anything beyond the cliffs at either side, hearing only the rushing water and chattering birds. The landscape at the top was invisible to me, nor did I know exactly how I’d get out of this crevasse.

At last, after scrambling up and down a number of ladders, over bridges, and along ravines, the last steep climb led me up and out into a wide, green pastureland, completely different from the territory I’d been journeying through for so long. And after I’d walked a few steps away, when I looked back there was no sign of the deep hole I’d been in. It could have been just a dip in the ground.

I thought how often it’s like this in life: we forget that the hole we are in now does have an outlet, that someday we will come out into a place of peace and nourishment. And likewise, when we are out, we’re tempted to forget the struggle and simply hope we never have to go through that again. Or we don’t recognize that someone else is journeying through a different landscape than our own, nor how that might affect their behavior and reactions.

But all landscapes are known to the Shepherd who guides us through every kind of polarity: day and night, up and down, rough and smooth, easy and difficult. When we remember that guidance, as this psalm instructs us, it can become a daily source of comfort and strength. This week has been a chance to remember, as the greatest possible challenge approaches.

What insights has this week brought for you? Tomorrow, I’ll be offering one final reading, and sharing some news about the future.