God.

We are having a hard time.

Many of us are condemning ourselves.

“I don’t know what to think,” we say.

“I can’t figure out who to trust.”

Many of us are condemning others. Even each other.

“If someone believes that,” we say, “I don’t even know how to talk to them.”

Many of us aren’t even sure how to trust you, because of the things that we’ve been told that you say, because of the things we’ve been taught that it means to follow you.

But God, you do love us.

If love means laying down our life for someone else.

Not when it’s convenient for us, of course, but when it’s necessary for them.

And love means reminding us that our self-condemnation and our

other-confrontation is often not accurate or helpful.

God, you are with us, you lead us to refreshment, you offer forgiveness for what we have done wrong and reframing of what we haven’t done wrong.

God, even today, even here in a hospital, you are inviting us to accept your shepherding, your healing for our minds and hearts, your presence in our long loneliness, your acceptance in our shame, your peace in our fear.

You are inviting us. Please help us accept your invitation.

Through you, Christ, our Lord.

Amen.