We have this morning what we need – a soft gentle rain, so gentle that the birds can eat under the rain shield. The ground will be revived and we will undoubtedly have more poison ivy for sure. This has been a summer of lots of poison ivy, popping up where I’ve never seen it before, from oe side of the sidewalk to the other.
After directly spraying on it, it must still be removed carefully, very carefully, so those of us who are allergic to it don’t have it spreading over our bodies. Some people have more than an itch and really suffer badly from it.
Some of us suffer from poison ivy of the soul, thoughts that spread, much like the vines of poison ivy, clouding our minds from truths we think are not so serious, or want to shun aside. There are, of course, truths we cannot avoid, some personal, some social or political. Weeding them out of our thoughts can be just as difficult as weeding poison ivy.
Prayer for the Day
You call us to lift the scales of blindness from our eyes,
And the limits of intolerance from our hearts;
You call us to be faithful servants responding to your word,
But we are ordinary people sometimes afraid to take risks.
Break down the chains of caution that bind us,
And move us boldly into a future we cannot fully envision.
In the name of the One who opens our minds,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Salem is in part the story of what happens when a set of unanswerable questions meets a set of unquestioned answers.
- Stacy Schiff, historian, from The Witches
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
- Charles Dickens, English novelist (1812-1870)
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts o the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Psalm 84: 1-2