Facing the burdens

After Matthew 11:28-30 

How do we face

the burdens of the day

with gentleness and

humility? He asks

us to consider what

it means, that we

reject domination, we

reject condemnation, we

reject any notion

of superiority. Gentleness

emerges from a changed 

heart, a loving heart,

a heart pained by the world

surrounding us. The world

knows anger and domination,

condemnation and condescension. 

The world does not know

gentleness, mistaking it

for weakness. Yet the gentleness

we are to pursue is a rock,

a great tower, a beacon.

 

Photograph by Stacie Clark via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Publication of the King James Bible – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

In the Shadow of Alfred the Great – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

When the World Seems to Be Winning – W. Robert Godfrey at Ligonier.

Go gently, gently

After Matthew 11:28-30 

We begin with rest,

rest from labor, rest

from burdens born.

We seek and find

rest for our weariness.

 

Then we take a yoke,

lightly placed, but a yoke

nonetheless, born like

he bears it, carried

with gentleness, with

humility, a servant’s heart.

 

Bearing this yoke leads

to rest for our souls,

a relief from turmoil,

a relief of the burdens

carried by our souls.

 

This yoke is easy,

this yoke is light.

 

Photograph by Reign Abarintos via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

California Son: On the Patron Saint of Lost Western People – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Sheep and Lambs – poem by Katharine Tynan at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Reflections on the Catechism: The Old Covenant – Dan King at Bibledude.

 

Has the Decline of U.S. Christianity Finally Stopped? – Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition.

 

And the Peace of God – poem by Daye Phillippo at Rabbit Room Poetry.