Christian hope does not promise successful days to the rich and the strong, but resurrection and life to those who must exist in the shadows of death.  Success is no name of God. Righteousness is.  Jürgen Moltmann

Meditation: The current chaplains and pastors in the White House who are chosen by our President mirror his capitalist worldview. They provide no challenge to him. They too, believe in a God who provides more wealth to the wealthy, and in a God who is on the side of the rich and the strong. The Old Testament would call them “false prophets”.  False prophets proclaim what the rulers and their followers want to hear. They even at times get paid by them to fool the masses. Their job is to blind people with “God talk” and numb their hearts and minds. However: “Success is no name of God. Righteousness is.” Many today are starving for Justice. This morning I heard the loud and ongoing shouting of a homeless boy outside my window. His mother screamed too, as she obviously felt overwhelmed. There is no place for and no mention of families like these in today’s politics. People who “must exist in the shadows of death” are not even mentioned. The focus is only on a few who are already privileged and who already have what they need, but who want more.  Only a few in our society benefit from the policies that are being made. Most of those in real and urgent need are being forgotten.

Prayer: But You don’t forget, righteous God. You know. You care. Your promise of resurrection and life is for those who are currently forgotten. God, let us remember those one the margins of society who are hungry and thirsty. Your Kingdom come! Amen

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him. Jürgen Moltmann

Meditation: A terrible storm over Texas has literally been roaring now for two days. And there is no end in sight. Similarly a figuratively threatening storm is hovering over our country and even impacts our worldwide political climate. We experience literal climate change as our weather develops extreme phenomena, even though this “inconvenient truth” is being denied by our current government. And also figuratively the world climate is becoming more extreme: Countries that were formerly democratic are being taken over by oppressive dictators. Laws are either being broken or undermined. The free press is being demonized, and in some countries journalists are even imprisoned or killed. On many levels we experience a terrible storm roaring. We hear and see many victims cry out to God. And God? Some say: “God does not hear”. Others believe: “God does not answer”. And still others claim”God does not exist”. However, God sees and hears all the deeply wounded, all the dying and all those hurt. And God weeps. God is weeping with us. God is weeping for us.

Prayer: God, You are not a stoic ruler far removed from our universe. No, You are able to weep. You have deep compassion for humanity and for this struggling earth. We pray that all victims of this current world climate, all those who have lost a loved one, all who are dying or who are hurting or being oppressed will see Your tear filled eyes. We pray that they will come to know about Your ongoing weeping on their behalf. And we pray that Your Spirit will come to comfort and to heal them. May Your Spirit give us all new hope that “One day we will laugh with You again”. Amen

The Lord commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say: “May my eyes flow with tears day and night, may I never stop weeping, for my people are deeply wounded and are badly hurt.” Jeremiah 6:5-6

When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap. Tom Hodgkinson

Meditation: I remember being pregnant with twins. I was able to work as a hospital chaplain until one Friday and the next Monday our girls were born full-term. Friends asked me how I could carry 50 pounds extra and work all the way through my pregnancy. One of my secrets was that I would take my lunch break to take a power nap. I would lie on the floor of my office with a blanket and nap for 30 minutes. That would get me and the babies through until it was time to go home. I still do this today. In between coming home from work and then driving my girls around to their respective sports activities, I am lying down, and I sleep for half an hour. My dog knows this ritual and loves cuddling up with me. If I get a nap, I am less “grumpy” as my daughters say. When I take that moment of rest, it reminds me that it is not all up to me. Sometimes I picture myself in the hand of God when I lie down. All of us need “holding”, need rest and the reminder that God provides while we are asleep.

Prayer: God of renewal, thank you for naps. Thank you for those times when we can shut out the world for a moment and go inward. Thank you for providing for us. Help us remember to take those opportunities to sleep, even if only for a short time. We need to honor our limitations and our need for rest, even as adults. Thank You for sleep. Amen

It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late. For the Lord provides for those he loves, while they are asleep. Psalm 127:2

When we begin to build walls of prejudice, hatred, pride, and self-indulgence around ourselves, we are more surely imprisoned than any prisoner behind concrete walls and iron bars. Mother Angelica

Meditation: It is disheartening for me to see how some of our evangelical brothers and sisters have joined the nationalist political movement of hatred that has invaded our country. Doesn’t “evangelical” mean bringing the Good News of Jesus to everybody and seeing everybody as worthy in God’s eyes? Isn’t Church meant to open itself to welcome all (no matter what race, culture, age, lifestyle or background) as brothers and sisters in Christ? How then can it be that some evangelical leaders of our time choose to imprison themselves and their followers? How can we as people who call ourselves Christians choose to support prejudice and hatred? How can we judge, push out and imprison for example undocumented immigrants and by doing so really imprison ourselves? Who has blinded us?

Prayer: God of mercy, we all need Your Spirit to come and convert our hearts. God, we grieve that some of our brothers and sisters are blinded. God, have mercy on us Christians here in the US, some of whom have fallen for the current “Zeitgeist” (the worldly spirit of the time). Come and enlighten Your Church. Lead us out of our self-made prisons and revive Your Spirit and Light within us. Remind us daily that we are followers of Christ. Remind us that we are set free and are called to set others free as well. God have mercy. Amen

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.1. John 2:11

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. Mignon McLaughlin

Meditation: Next month my husband and I will be married for 20 years. Somehow it feels like a short time, and yet much has happened. We could not have imagined our life as it is now. We are deeply grateful. There have been ups and downs, desert times and times of abundance on our journey. Coming from two different cultures while living in a third, and being first generation immigrants have put certain stressors on our marriage. At times each of us had to walk certain sections of the journey alone, with the spouse being physically far away, yet emotionally close in prayer. We are a good team and have worked hard to provide for our children. We want them to have more resources than we did when we first arrived in this country. We are a deeply committed couple: to God, to our work, to each other and to our children. At times we have not had enough time away “to fall in love again”. Yesterday we booked our first trip to Jamaica without our children. What a gift! We will take it as a celebration of  our 20 years of marriage. We are blessed!

Prayer: God of love, we are grateful for our relationship and marriage. Thank You for the enduring love You gave us for each other. Thank you for those countless and long days where we worked side by side to continue and complete our education, build a home and have a family. Thank You also for days of celebration and rest that allow us to turn towards each other and that complement our walking side by side. Thank You for allowing us to fall in love again with each other, over and over. Amen

Be happy with the wife you married when you were young. She gives you joy, as your fountain gives you water. Proverbs 5:18

Life is as complex as we are. Sometimes our vulnerability is our strength, our fear develops our courage, and our woundedness is the road to our integrity. It is not an either/or world. Rachel Naomi Remen

Meditation: We have a president whose worldview is built on an “either-or” perspective. He often misses the complexity of reality. He sets on strength, popularity and show of force as he understands it. He sees people and countries either being for him or against him. Everything begins and ends with his own self-interests. As Christians we follow Jesus who fully entered the ambiguity of our world. He refused to follow the cultural norms of his time that divided people into good and bad, rich and poor, worthy and unworthy. He believed that Israel was chosen but also that all other nations were called by God. He modeled vulnerability as being his greatest strength. As Christians we confess that “through his wounds we are healed”. This paradox of faith is our guiding light, even in times like these. We find our strength and integrity in remaining focused on Jesus and his embodied values what God’s Kingdom is about. Life is as complex as we are. Let us remember who leads us and who we are following, in times when other leaders demand obedience and loyalty.

Prayer: God, we are afraid of what this simplified “either-or” leadership will do to our nation and to our world. Give us courage to speak up. Keep our vulnerability alive and transform our compassion into strength. Take those areas where we and others are hurting and allow for a deepened integrity to fill our nation. Let the world unite against all splitting efforts to divide. God have mercy in these times where nationalism, popularism and other “isms” try to dominate. We rely on Your Spirit and on Your guidance. Amen

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,1. Corinthians 1:27

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength. Corrie ten Boom

Meditation: Jesus invites us to not constantly look ahead and worry about the future. Sometimes this is hard to do. Especially we Germans are raised to prepare for tomorrow, in case bad things might happen. However, living in fear of tomorrow will rob today of its strength and its joy. A cure to either dwelling nostalgically in the past or constantly worrying about the future is the art of living mindfully. Being mindful is the practice of being fully in this very moment. As I experience my life with this one simple breath of mine, I am releasing all judgement. I am letting go of worry. I am refusing to let either the past or the future invade my present space. We can say, we have an intimate moment with ourselves, or we allow God to have an intimate moment with us. Prayer and meditation are helped by this very art of mindfulness, as it moves us from thinking, asking and worrying to pausing, listening and being still. Being mindful – there is no better place for God to be present with us.

Prayer: God, You hold our very being. Teach us the art of mindfulness. When our minds race 100 miles an hour, when we have worries and critical thoughts, when judgements invade our peace, let us breathe deeply. Teach us the art of asking our worries to step aside for a while. Help us let go of judgements of things past. Fill us with Your Spirit that says: “Now and here – breathe out all that is dark and heavy and breathe Me in, take in the Light of God that is sufficient for you today.” And we are grateful. Amen

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie ten Boom

Meditation: Today, many people have travelled or are travelling to see the total eclipse of the sun. An event that made millions of US citizens buy extra dark glasses so that they can see into the sun without getting blinded. The next time such eclipse will be happening here in the US will be when my daughters turn eighty years old. It is fascinating how the shadow of the moon will be covering the sun. And somehow we experience how small we are, how tiny in the galaxies and how this one day’s event will only repeat here in the US 66 years from now. What will happen in these next 66 years? What will the future hold for my daughters, for our globe? Will we continue to destroy our earth or will God’s Spirit be able to help us turn things around? Will global warming, nuclear war or the breakdown of civilization as we know it be in our unknown future? These days feel dark not only because the sun is hiding in the middle of the day. We call on all people with a spiritual life to unite and with the help of God’s Spirit we will work against the forces of darkness and against self-destruction. And in Christ we trust that God has not forsaken us.

Prayer: God of Light, we are fascinated by the darkness we will see tomorrow, and yet we are terrified by the darkness that the politics of our times hold. We entrust ourselves and those we love to your care. You have begun Your story with humanity. We pray for mercy and for Your story with us to continue, and for Your Spirit to lead us humans back to the Light. Help us preserve our planet, stop nuclear destruction and the decay of civilization. Thank You that we know You. Let all Christians and all spiritual people in this world rise up. Let Your Light shine and have the last word! Amen

I am being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Do not be silent; there is no limit to the power that may be released through you. Howard Thurman

Meditation: We are living in times where our basic values as Christians and as a democratic society are being attacked – once again. History repeats itself. Neonacism, KKK, right extremists are using their opportunity under a violence promoting president to rise up. How do we respond? It matters what you say! It matters how you respond! Let us not respond with violence, but let us not be silent either. Words spoken by millions of people who denounce the extreme right ideology will have power! When we pray and ground our hearts and mind in God, when we speak up as Christians and uphold the values that Jesus embodied, power will be released through us! Let us not doubt that it only takes one hopeful and faithful person who can join and gather millions of people to stand against the demonic forces that want to destroy rather than embrace and love.

Prayer: God, we pray for those whose hatred and fear is blinding them. We pray for clear yet non-violent resistance against those forces that try to divide our society and that try to destroy basic democratic values. There is power in numbers. Let us not be silent but pray, write and speak up for love that overcomes hatred. Let us speak up for those who are being targeted and victimized. Let our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques ring loud and call to love, justice and peace. God have mercy, Amen.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Proverbs 31:8

God dreams us, and we should not let God dream alone. Dorothee Sölle

Meditation: Our country is going through a spiritual desert. It feels like our top leaders are spiritually bankrupt. The reckless and casual threat of nuclear war and the support of right radical violence is utterly irresponsible and horrifying. This is humanity at its worse. And yet, I join Dorothee Soelle in believing that God has not given up on us yet. God dreams us coming spiritually back to life. God asks us: “Can these bones live”? We need to ask ourselves: “Are we awake? Are our imagination, our investment, our hope and engagement available to God? Are we present enough to join God in dreaming, imagining and creating new life?” We see demonstrators filled with hatred. And we witness demonstrators respond by singing: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine”. We can fill the spiritual vacuum of our time with non-violent demonstrations and with dreams of humanity recovering from this spiritual and emotional illness. Let us join God’s dreams and hopes. God has not given up on us yet!

Prayer: Gracious God, we need Your dreams for us. We need Your hope for us. We need You to bring back to life justice and respect in this country. Revive trust and tolerance. Bring forth a spiritual awakening of the millions who seem to be asleep or even dead. Wake us up, so we do not let you dream alone. God, have mercy on us. Amen

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” Ezekiel 37: 1-3