Hello my friends,

I will often focus on a current event and/or the gospel passage from the lectionary here, but for today's newsletter, I just want to reflect on Psalm 46:1-2 with you. I have been pondering this passage a lot lately and so I want to share a recent experience I had this last week that made this passage come to life for me and see if it resonates with your heart.

​-What Is God Like? by the late Rachel Held Evens. I love reading this book to my children, so I wanted to recommend it here in case you were looking for a good book for that special kiddo in your life. She has also published "Who Is Jesus?" and "What Is The Bible?" That are worth checking out as well.

​-Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn't Have to Heal From by Meredith Miller. I have recommended this wonderful book before, but I wanted to do so again, given the direction of my newsletter today. It is such a wonderful resource.

​-The Book of Belonging: Bible Stories for Kind and Contemplative Kids by Mariko Clark

Spinning In The Kitchen With God.

Psalm 46:1-2

“God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”

I am always the first one up in the morning in our home, but not for long. Around 5 or 6 am, I’ll hear the bedroom door open, little feet stepping through it before closing it, then running down the hall in the dim light. My two-year-old daughter, Reese, is always up well before anyone else and comes out to spend the early mornings with me. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.

A few days ago, I woke up and was incredibly tired. Like, bone tired. It was around 5 a.m., and Reese found me in the dim light of the kitchen at around 5:15. She asked for some raisins, so I gave her a little handful. As I stood there trying to wake up, my mind ran through many of my fears. Fears for my children’s future. Fears for our planet. Fears for the fate of all those who are suffering right now. My tired mind was clamoring to find something to keep it from becoming overwhelmed by anxiety.

As I was trying to settle my mind, my eyes drifted over to Reese. I’ll never forget what I saw. In her little flower-patterned pajamas, messy blond hair, and a look of total bliss on her smiling, dimpled face, she was spinning like a ballerina, all while munching her raisins.

Catching me smiling at her, she stopped immediately and made eye contact with me with her great big blue eyes and said, “Do you want to spin with me, da da?”

My eyes immediately filled with tears at the beauty and the joy of what was happening. I said, “Absolutely, baby!” And then we both spun like ballerinas, quietly laughing to each other in the dim morning light of the kitchen.

It was one of those moments I will remember forever. In all the major events of her life to come that I will be blessed to experience with her, I will remember my mornings with that little girl and spinning in the kitchen.

As I have reflected on that moment since then, I can’t help but think of it as so sacred. It was like a little taste of heaven. A moment you just want to live in forever. One that you struggle to describe without saying, “God was in that moment.”

As I remember Reese’s smiling face, I could see the absolute freedom and safety she felt. In that moment, she was just so happy, so full of joy that she wanted to express her feelings through dancing. The most priceless part of that moment was that she then wanted to share her joy with me. She wanted me to share in her joy too. It was overwhelmingly sacred. It was holy.

Everyone Should Thrive

I couldn’t help but think that her freedom, her thriving, and joy are what I want every child to experience. Every family. Every person. Every living thing. The deep tragedy is that we have all the resources and ability to do that very thing. We have the ability to take care of each other and our planet in ways that would just bring so much joy and thriving to this earth we call home. Yet time and time again, power and wealth are consolidated by the few, and the many are exploited, suffer, and struggle, all while our planet is ravaged to satisfy insatiable greed before our eyes. Hence all my fears that were running through my mind before I found myself spinning in the kitchen with God.

This experience brought Psalm 46: 1-2 to mind. Here it is again: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” That even though everything feels like it’s falling apart around us, we can still trust and find help and refuge from God.

It is often hard for me to hold onto scriptures like this, especially in the overwhelming injustice and cruelty we witness every day. We are in a time of trouble. We are seeing the earth giving way. Where is our help? Where is the refuge for those who are suffering?

This is why I chafe against the phrase, “the gospel isn’t political.” Jesus himself said that he came to bring good news to the poor. That is political. Jesus himself said he came to liberate the oppressed. That is political. Jesus said "let the little children come unto me." That is political. Jesus himself taught us to pray to God that everyone would have bread for today. That is political. Jesus himself taught us to pray to God, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is political. Loving your neighbor as yourself is a political act. Love is the most political thing. It insists on a world where everyone and creation is loved and cared for. We can't get more political than that.

What the gospel of Jesus is not is a power grab and a justification for hoarding wealth, which is what much of politics looks like today. Much of which is tragically carried out in the name of “Christianity” in our country.

Wanting everyone to have what they need and our planet to be taken care of isn’t “communism.” It is holy. It is love.

Reese invited me into a refuge of peace and joy that morning. She invited me to dance with abandon and radical trust, even though everything around me wants to tell me do the opposite. She invited me to consider choosing hope and courage, even in the face of very real fears. I think that is what finding refuge in God looks like and feels like today. It looks like seeing all the very real problems in our world, and rather than being overwhelmed by them, we insist on facing them together with courage and the joy that comes from sharing refuge with each other. It looks like seeing joy as an act of resistance. It looks like trusting that love will have the last word, even in our present time of trouble. It looks like spinning in the kitchen with God.

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​Prayer

Jesus, our world is full of hopelessness and fear.

Everywhere we look, it feels like more reason to despair.

We need you to show us what refuge looks like in a world like ours. We need to know how to be joyful even in the face of those who seek to crush our spirits. We need the courage to still be defined by hope rather than fear.

Be our help in our time of trouble, Jesus, so that we can be a help for others in their troubles too.

In your name we pray, Amen.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Day Devotional: I wrote a daily devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus through the season of we are currently navigating together. You can find out more below: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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