Good Courage is a compilation of work from a number of writers. The contributor for today, the Rev. Nora Vedress, serves a church in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She’s also the volunteer chaplain for the local police.
I’d go to her church, if I was nearby. I’d like to experience worship, and hear sermons prepared by a person so willing to reveal their vulnerabilities, without making it a “pity party”.
In today’s devotion, she worked with the word “steadfast”. Does being steadfast mean you act, and appear so strong, that you seem untouched by the pain of the world? Or does it mean being solid of character, and steady and present, even when life is tough?
Rev. Vedress asked her readers to think about the pandemic. Light a candle and reflect on times when you “crushed it”, and moved beyond survival to thriving in that time of trial. She also invited us to remember the times when it almost crushed us.
Who are the “steadfast” people in your life? For whom are you a steadfast person?
When I was having my deepest struggles in the seeming worst of the pandemic, I enrolled in an online course in CCT, offered by the School for Contemplative Living in New Orleans. CCT is Compassion Cultivation Training. For 2 months I practiced daily mindfulness exercises and met online weekly with a group to learn about compassion for self and others.
What practices help you to be steadfast?
Here is a benediction Nora Vedress wrote for the end of a worship service during the pandemic:
Benediction
So now we leave this space of worship
And while so much of the road ahead is uncertain,
the path constantly changing,
we know some things that are as solid and sure
as the ground beneath our feet,
and the sky above our heads.
We know God is love.
We know Christ’s light endures.
We know the Holy Spirit this there,
found in the space between all things,
closer to us than our next breath,
binding us to each other,
until we meet we again,
Go in peace.
Darrow Woods: Writer of Things 