“To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.” -Psalm 22:5 (NRSV)

Sometimes we make poor choices. Once, against my better judgment, I attempted to fix a leaky roof. By myself. Without a rope. The roof was aluminum. When the rain started, the steep roof immediately became slippery. As I slid off the roof. I said, “Oh God!”

The landing came quickly and painfully. I broke some bones in my back and a wrist. Someone spotted me – saved! – and though I was helpless and hurting for real, everything fell into place for my care and mending.

Jesus advises us, “When you are praying, don’t heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.” (Mt. 6:7.)

I learned that a very brief prayer – “Oh, God!” – uttered in sincerity, has power that matches the psalmist’s, for all its eloquence. In every time, in every place, simple and direct prayer is enough. If the artist in oneself carefully crafts psalms of our own hearts, that too keeps us connected to the God who loves to hear from us.

Be with us now and always.
Oh, God!
-Tom Worrell

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” -Psalm 18:2 (NRSV)

The past 18 months of COVID-19 have been trying, locked away in our homes. I am so grateful that I live in such a beautiful place as the Northwest where I can enjoy the beauty of nature given to us by God. We spent many a weekend on our boat, anchored in a cove, sometimes the only boat in that cove. Just appreciating the majesty of the mountains, the gentle rocking of the boat, the wildlife, made me feel centered again. I took my refuge in nature and felt renewed to be able to go back home to deal with the challenges of the next week.

Think of those who live in a tiny apartment in a high rise in cities across the US. Imagine how they must have felt trapped in that apartment building with high rises all around them, especially during the time of COVID! We have a greenbelt bordering our backyard, so we have deer coming through our yard following the trails blazed centuries before we built here. We never tire of seeing the fawns frolic across the lawn, the bucks doing their dance in the fall rutting season, the does taking care of their fawns. The deer fence around our garden keeps the deer from munching on those tender leaves of new growth.

I started working part-time in Anacortes in the summer of 2019. When COVID hit in early 2020, we all had to start working from home. So that meant I went into Anacortes twice a week to get checks signed and pick up my paperwork. My employer allowed me to work from home permanently when it was time to return to the office. That has given me so much flexibility to be able to get away on the weekends to enjoy nature and fit in my other commitments.

Lord, thank you for the way You provide a refuge when we need it most. Thank you for all the blessings of living in the Pacific Northwest. Amen.
-Marilyn Allen

“But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” -Psalm 13:5 (NRSV)

2020 was a really hard year for my mental health. I had to have a hysterectomy in 2019 to fix a chronic issue that was messing with my immune system, and the surgery caused a change in my body that triggered severe depression and anxiety starting in January 2020. It felt like all of my depression medication had stopped working, and my doctor thankfully found a way to even everything out after some trial and error. During this time, my laptop’s keyboard also broke, and sending it to the Geek Squad repair facility meant losing something required for me to get the Lenten devotional book done. I managed to get work done on my phone and various computers in my department’s workroom, but it was one more thing that was messing with me. Add in a student-triggered panic attack, and it was a rough January and February for me. I was finally starting to get my bearings again in March when the pandemic hit, and it felt like I lost everything that was life-giving for me during the week of March 8-14 when campus shut down, church went virtual, and Daniel’s school went to remote learning. My therapist left in June, and I went through two more therapists at their agency before I landed with the one I see now.

So, with all that going on, how exactly have I pulled through? It helped in some ways that I really had no other choice but to push through. While I do live with my parents and my mom does help with Daniel, I did not have the option of pulling the covers over my head and hiding in a dark room like I wanted to at times because I had a kid who needed me to take care of him. I pushed myself to make sure he received the care he needed, and that he was able to do school online. My job helped because I had to earn money somehow. Working with my students gave me a way to use up my anxious energy, and it gave me some purpose. Having been through periods of severe depression before, I also knew that God was present with me even if I couldn’t recognize it at the time.

Gracious God, thank you for the steadfast love you show us, even in periods of anxiety or depression. Amen.
-Jen McCabe

“God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.” -Psalm 7:10 (NRSV)

I would like to think that I am among the “upright,” but I know better. Oh sure, grading on the curve there are a few I could turn around and sneer at (if I were a sneering sort of person). But God doesn’t grade on the curve. When I was a child, my brother and I would find old bits of wood – lath from plaster and lath construction jobs – and we would “sword-fight” with those sticks. I would often grab a garbage can lid and use it as a shield. It was pretty effective, cutting down the amount of pounding I would otherwise have received from my bigger, older, and fiercer brother. I never think of God saving me because I’m upright. As I said, I know better. But I do like the image of God standing before me – each of us, really – with shield in hand and making sure that “Today, you’ll be OK. I’ve got your back (and your front).” I like to think of the mask I wear when I am out in public as a shield God has given me to protect myself AND others. It isn’t that we are upright in “our” heart, but we’re being upright in God’s heart! I like to think the vaccines we’ve been given are another shield, another layer of protection God has provided, like chain-mail, that protects myself AND others. The world has certainly gone whacky over the past few years, but my strength and comfort during this pandemical season are knowing God has tucked us into a strong, warm, and loving place, protected by ribs and armor and shields. I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be during this Advent season.

We don’t always live up to the status you have for us – upright – and yet you do not call us what we are alone, but what we can be in you. Find us a place to rest easy in your heart that we may tread lightly the journey that yet lies before us. Thank you for your eternal presence. Amen.
– Fr. Keith Axberg

“O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me…” -Psalm 7:1 (NRSV)

What is saving my life now? Now and every day, a simple answer: Writing. Of all the places on Earth, the place I feel the most grounded is at my desk, writing. For others, it might be at the piano or in the art studio or walking in nature. Sailing or skiing. Gardening or golfing. Or lazy Sunday drives. You can feel it, that mantle of calm that settles on your shoulders as you retreat from a sometimes-ugly world. You take refuge there, wherever it is that speaks to you, from pursuers literal and figurative.

What transpired at my desk during the past 21 months during the COVID-19 pandemic was time—and permission—to revisit a very dark period in my life and write about it.

As I worked through a gamut of raw and often unbearable emotions, I finally forgave myself for holding this pain in for so long. And then I wrote a new novel based on this catharsis, with forgiveness and redemption central to the story.

It’s as if the Lord held me in His hand for as long as I needed (40+ years), and then He set me free, like a bird. But I know He is there, for whenever I need Him next.

Dear Lord, thank you for holding us in the palm of Your hand as we work through past trauma. Amen.
-Ashley Sweeney

“Turn, O Lord, save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.” -Psalm 6:4 (NRSV)

I cannot accurately describe the fear that has existed in me regarding the possibility of getting COVID. Having had respiratory problems from a young age and being asthmatic, the idea of a deadly disease that attacks the lungs is terrifying. My parents have been present with me in the emergency room and hospital through asthma exacerbation and pneumonia, so they share that fear. Add in my son Daniel who has spent time in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) on a ventilator with a mysterious respiratory disorder, and you have a perfect storm. Daniel did school by remote learning for a year (which was a horrible but necessary option), I worked only online for 18 months, and the family did not leave the house except for grocery shopping and medical appointments.

What is saving me right now quite literally as I sit at home on a Sunday morning with asthma exacerbation, is the availability of vaccines against COVID. They are not perfect and there are indeed breakthrough COVID cases, but it means that people like me will likely just have cold symptoms instead of ending up on ventilators. The world came together to fund the research for the vaccines, scientists were able to draw on research into other viruses and vaccines for those, and the FDA cut the red tape in the process to get the vaccines approved. The ingenuity of researchers astonishes me as the use of mRNA is quite novel, and we are finding that it does indeed work well in telling the body how to build the spike protein on the outside of the coronavirus so that it knows to destroy it. Praise God for the ways in which scientists can work in changing situations.

Lord, you are the Great Physician and the Healer of our Souls. Thank you for the inspiration You give to scientists and the incredible ways the human body works. Help us to make ethical decisions as we pursue treatments like this and continue to enlighten and inspire researchers as they explore the ways Your creation works. Amen.
-Jen McCabe