Sunday Stretch: Vol. 4

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Thanks for joining in for Week 3 of the Sunday Stretch: where I’ll break down some weekly Bible passages, share prayer and prayer requests with you and for this community as well as the broader world.

I was tired as I read this week’s Bible passages. Sometimes my body acts like a generic medication: stress and fatigue take awhile to kick in. I can coast for awhile on anxiety and adrenaline, and the last few weeks have been busy ones here with family, church, work, and book events. Seems somehow though there’s eventually always a crushing fatigue, and a sense that no matter how hard you work - or how much we try together to listen with attentiveness and love one another, the world bears down anyway.

Maybe this feeling is compounded as I read today’s news stories: the intense bravery of Ukrainian fighters and medics and volunteers giving way to revelations of torture in Russian black sites; the fleeing of young Russian men in fear of conscription against their will; the absolute devastation of Hurricane Ian in Florida and the ongoing woes of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico. Story after story of wealthy and powerful men around the world, like Putin, or the lauded Ethiopian leader Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who presides over genocide and Civil War just three years after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today’s Bible passages brought an important reminder. In the story of Naaman, the Syrian army commander who sought treatment for his dreaded skin disease; and the story of the ten lepers cured by Jesus, only one of whom who returned to say thank you: I am reminded that God’s yoke is easy, and God’s burden is light. I do not need to bear the weight of the world, and neither do you.

Art by Nicolas Poussin, The Healing of Naaman by the Prophet Elisaus