Words of Light and Hope from Rev’d Judith Sweetman

We all know what it’s like to fall…things go wrong. Bad things happen. Tragedies come our way…This is part of what it means to be human. Descent is one of the realities of existence. But it contains within its harshness the possibility of our flourishing…falling to the dark ground and somehow finding there the resources we will need once more…There are no easy short-cuts to letting go. This is a courageous practice that demands much of us….Jesus was no stranger to the experience of descent…we encounter him in the Garden of Gethsemane…and he is very real about how he feels. But he comes to a point where he finds words of letting go: “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want.”…This letting go by Jesus is not a rolling over in the face of defeat. It is rather an acceptance by Jesus that there may be something bigger and deeper going on, that the descent may somehow be trusted,

From Running over rocks: spiritual practices to transform tough times, by Ian Adams.

Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. “John 12. 24

If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night, even darkness is no darkness with You; the night is as clear as the day.; darkness and light to You are both alike.” Psalm 139