Weekly Inspiration (8/3/22)
From folk singer/songwriter/poet, Carrie Newcomer:
“It’s been a hard week in my home state of Indiana as our state super majority legislature comes down like a fist on women’s lives, autonomy and dignity. I’m keeping my Wednesday post short.
“I believe in the better, kinder, more just world. I believe that love (and the actions that arise from love) have the power to bend us toward that better world. But I also know that movement and growth (personally and culturally) are rarely linear. Justice is a reality we keep creating, losing and recreating. Love is what keeps moving the dial forward —day by day, year by year, generation by generation.
“In my left hand I hold my longing, my outrage, my grief and worry. In my other hand I hold grace and a love that is strong, enduring and transformative. It is possible to hold these two very different things at the same time, but it is not always easy.
“Helping me to hold the balance is that knowledge that much of my outrage has arisen out of love - my love for justice and the dignity of all people, my love of the good earth and the earth’s wisdom, my love for women’s gifts and laughter and community. That helps me hold what is heavy more expansively and does not narrow my vision.”
Poem of the Week
God forgave us all our trespasses,
erasing the record that stood against us
with its legal demands.
God set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
—Colossians 2.13-14
The good news is that everything is forgiven—
everything.
All you thought was demanded of you
is actually an illusion.
There is no account,
no thought of how “good” you are.
Only love.
Does the sun judge the tree,
or punish it for growing poorly?
No, it only shines.
How hard it is to trust
that God is pure light, pure delight.
How we want to hang onto judgment—
but it is crucifixion.
From Cain onward that has been our sin:
to judge and to expect judgment.
Salvation is not “qualifying” for something.
It's trusting you don't have to.
- Steve Garnaas-Holmes