Trust

Photo Credit: Ryan Klinck

Trust

By Stephanie Evelyn McKellar

Take me to the water
Waves snuggle the shore
Teaching me to breathe
Take me to the water
Immersed and submerged
Holding the breath
Finding it restored
Gasping for air
Learn to breathe deeply
at the Jordan.

The unmerited work of the divine
That brings about healing and grace
In a world of guilt and shame
Who understands
Trust (or grace)
Striving and accomplishing
Accolades and correct answers
Who am I, without merit?

Take me to the water
Learn to breathe again
Let go the right marks,
Lean in
To grace and healing
Take me to the water
Be simply a person
Messy and mishapful
Weary and human
Beloved to the divine
Ever worthy
of love and dignity

What helps trust?
What teaches the posture?
Lean in
Stand not upon merit,
Rest
Breathe in grace and healing

Practice.
At the sushi restaurant
Omakase to the chef
"I entrust myself to you"
And then delight in what delicacies are brought

Practice.
On the pilgrim way
Let body, through walking, be the guide
Educating mind and spirit

Practice.
Open up to prayer
“I sing...to what listens”
I am here, speaks the silence.

Practice.
Trust leans
on wisdom, and relationship.
On history, and memory.
Trust learns
from disappointment and dialogue.
Trust needs
you to say
I am here.
Again and again and again.

Take me to the water
In food, in song, in breath, in grace
Take me to the water
Trust is hard enough just walking to this place
Take me to the water
To be baptized in thin and sacred space
Take me to the water
Let me know your heart even if I never see your face.

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A Lenten Blessing:

 May the blessing of lament bring you rest, and may you find strength in knowing that God inhabits your sorrow.