Take Heart, Sister Girl

At the beginning of each day, you step into the world and, if you’re lucky, you avoid the news and the bickering and the sensational soundbites.

You step across the remains of yesterday with a mug of comfort in your hands and you avoid that one floorboard that creaks when the weather slides just the slightest bit sideways. When you stand barefoot in front of the window or on the deck or on your front porch or patio or in the grass, it is only the dog or the cat or the robin looking for worms that shifts its gaze in greeting — thumping tail, arched back, or head tilted toward the earth.

So, you breathe, and let the morning fill your lungs with its dewy sweetness.

“Take heart,” the silence might breathe back to you. “All is well.”

All is well.

You might question that, as you exhale. Because, even though you’ve avoided the news and the bickering and the sensational soundbites in these first few moments, their residue hangs loosely at the edges of the day. The weight of the world. The depth of the sorrow. The disappointment of unexpected turns in the road.

Don’t lose heart. All is well. You are in good company.

The Bible goes to great lengths to show us that all the people on its pages were ordinary and average, doing one little thing after another, rooted in trust, grounded in good news, and drenched in fear or hopelessness.

We take the good with the bad, and God is gracious to give us both, as a reminder that every good and perfect thing starts with God. (See James 1:17)

Even people like Moses and Noah and Abraham and Sarah had their weaknesses and made their missteps. When Paul talks about the prophet Elijah, and how Elijah prayed to God for it to rain and God heard Elijah’s prayer, Paul points out for all to see, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are.” (James 5:17)

The only one who rose above it all was Jesus.

As for the rest of the people in all the stories of the Bible, God filled them up with His Holy Spirit and breathed life into their dreams and their plans, and God, through ordinary people who did ordinary things, made miracles happen that changed the world for good.

Take heart, sister girl. All is well. Breathe deeply. Do your part. Do your one thing. Fight the good fight. Offer grace. Work for justice. Move with mercy.

Be kind.

Keep your focus. Keep moving forward. Keep looking up.

Keep offering up every little thing in your ordinary life to the God of good things and miracles and hope.

Take heart, sister girl. All is well.