By The Rev. Janna Preston

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  O my God, in you I trust; do no let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.  Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.  Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord; therefore the Lord instructs sinners in the way. The Lord leads the humble in the Lord’s way.   Psalm 25:1-9.

Someone asked me a few weeks ago to share a specifically difficult time in my life.  I shared some of the details and the feelings I went through, and part of the process.  Later, they shared with me their appreciation for my willingness to talk about it and shared that “it was raw” and so they realized it was challenging to talk about.  A commentary that I read this week about our lectionary Psalm talked about how raw the Psalmist is, in Psalm 25,  almost “ranting” to God.  They pointed out that ranting to and with God, is probably the most authentic prayer we can ever pray.  It made me realize that kind of prayer has been one of my steppingstones at difficult times.  Don’t be afraid to have that kind of “all over the place” ranting with God.  God doesn’t need us to have flowery prayers to be heard.  Go ahead and rant.  God can help us sort things out and loves us even more with that kind of honesty.

I pray you have a good rest of the week, and we hope to see you Sunday!

Blessings and peace,

Janna