May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
Colossians 3:15

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God
so that you may know that
you have eternal life.
1 John 5:13

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17

Thanksgiving

Given so much,
What have I done to
Deserve it?
Nothing,
Absolutely nothing.

No wonder my heart
Dances.

Ann Lewin
from "Unfinished Sentences"

Doing Love

Lord, faced with my daily failures,
it's so easy to despair.
To think that all I see is all there is,
and that the one I seem to be,
weak and hurting, is the real me.
To think that all I can expect,
along the way I walk,
is more of the same.
A bit bleak, Lord, a bit daunting.

But then I hear your voice,
telling the criticising crowd
the story of the son come home.
It makes me realise that I, like him,
am made for better things.
That wallowing among the pigs and dirt,
the shoe-shine brightness of my
promises smeared over,
is not where I should be.

Remind me, Lord, when I look down to that,
that I'm created in your image.
That I was meant, am meant,
to live and walk with you.
That in your purposes and love,
I can stand straight and whole.
That, living in the life
your son has bought and given me,
I can return to what I truly am.
Your child. Real and fulfilled.

Then in the joy of knowing that's for me,
I walk the world refreshed.
My feet still firmly planted on the ground,
but moving with new grace and dignity.

Eddie Askew
(No Strange Land, p. 35, abbr.)