I am not alone in feeling the world has come undone. God surely is weeping for us. “Love God and love your neighbor,” so simple and yet we continue to miss the mark. I am weary from all the violence in my neighborhood and many neighborhoods across the land and oceans away. The words in Lamentations give me hope, because no matter how grave the day, God is working tirelessly to save us from ourselves. My soul is called to help. When the conversation is weighted in negativity, I must proclaim words of hope. When I feel no good outcome is possible, I double-down, and love to the best of my ability who and what are right in front of me, believing my small act will help further God’s plan of redemption. I fill up on experiences of beauty, love, and divinity around me, so that I have the stamina and hope necessary to meet the dark with light. It means that I pray for strangers, because the strangers are mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, grandparents, neighbors desperate for God to make a way. I revel in the mysterious workings of my heart reaching a heart in need. Ultimately, we are all connected. God gave us each other to make our way. Love God and love your neighbor—today’s work.

In Judaism, there is a story I love about the gathering of the light called Tikkun Olam. As the story has been told, in the beginning there was one original source of Light, which supported the entire Universe. But something happened to shatter the light into infinite shards scattered across creation. Glimmers of this divine light are said to be found in every living thing, from majestic Sequoia trees to barking dogs, to soaring birds, to the beating human heart.

We are all called to search for this light, celebrate its presence, and then do whatever we can to expand it. We each have a role to play in saving this sacred world.

Don’t worry about numbers. Start with the person nearest you. Make it your daily mission to do one act of kindness that changes the day for another. You are helping love to find a way!

Dear God,

How do I make peace with the Unfair
(the cruel)?
Why must a heart be broken?
I conjure so many different outcomes—
Where mothers do not lose children
and children do not lose mothers.
Where no one is hungry and war is dropped from the common lexicon.
Where everyone knows the exquisite experience of loving and being loved.
Today, my daughter asked me how I could still believe— Like me, she painfully absorbs
the world’s hurts deep inside.
I told her the truth:
None of us is safe from the fate of Jesus,
Nor thankfully—from His destiny.
Dear God, please step in and save the day,
we both know there is much good to be saved.
I am holding You to Your promise
for Love to find a way.
Make good on Your word
For her, for me, for all.

A hopeful Amen.