New Song

For the overwhelmed

The sky was feathered with white clouds and brushed with pink stripes this morning. I’ve been waking up so early recently. Somewhere between 5 and 6am.

After weeks of illness and being mostly bed-bound, the rising sun somehow feels symbolic.

I read Psalm 46, “put a new song in my heart.”

I paused.

I need a new song. I’ve been playing some old songs on repeat for quite some time and they have worn me out. Songs of rejection, fear, neglect. I get an annoying tune in my head that I can’t stop singing. Am I stuck? I think so. There is processing pain and there is getting stuck in it. I’m stuck.

So this morning with the sun glowing and the clouds as pink as a cancer ribbon, I lift up that request to God—put a new song in my heart.

Maybe you are stuck too. While you carry everyone in your life, while you get all the things done, while you remember to change the laundry, while you are sleepless with all the worry—ask God to raise the sun up in your heart and give you a new tune to sing.

Perhaps a song of joy, peace, compassion, and hope.

May God put a new song in you. (If it is a Christmas song, even better.)

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A Liturgy for when you feel Overwhelmed (an except from my book Feel)

I open my heart to You.

God, in my overwhelm, I attend to Your whisper.

You re-collect my heart by Your promises.

One by one you piece me back together.

God, help me hear Your promise to lift my burdens.

Help me lay down the load that isn’t mine and hold delicately what is.

Help me keep going, not out of fear, but from a desire to be faithful.

God, may I walk with Your love at the center of my being.

Because of Your great love, I am sustained.

God, may I be faithful to what You have given me to carry today.

Lord, hear my prayer.

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May I suggest that “Feel” is the perfect gift to give this year. It is a book of prayers. A resource for any day and everyday. 75 prayers—1 for every feeling. Get it here.

As always—stay awake to love.