I’m there again. I’m in a place that is familiar but not identical to other times I sought out this place for refuge. Yes, I’m there again, deep in the pit, curled up in the dark. I have wound my way down to its bottom when clouds of depression descend on me. I am driven there again now by the pandemic that blankets the Earth, and the chronic anxiety of living with my husband’s ever-growing dementia.
Now, I want to get out of this pit, but how?
“Choose life,” pleads the Deuteronomist (Deuteronomy 30:19). Jesus showed us how to do that with love. Love God with everything that we are. Love everyone around us deeply, profoundly, devotedly. Love ourselves because we are God’s children. Love like Jesus, even when it’s risky. Love when it may never be returned. Love when uncertainty, even chaos, reigns. Love with delight and joy.
Choose life: Love.
This message is an excerpt from “The pit: and the way out” by Susie Gamelin in the April 2021 issue of Gather.
Daily Grace has been offering you things to ponder and things to pray about for more than 10 years. For free. Women of the ELCA provides many other free online resources, too—see welca.org/resources. Please support Women of the ELCA at welca.org/give.
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