WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.600 Life within all living. 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:09.359 We praise you, salve for every soreness, mender of every brokenness, midwife of a better future. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:16.000 We praise you, ground of all being, judge of all nations, conscience of the universe. 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:23.359 We praise you, creator, redeemer, companion, friend, breath of life, God beyond all names. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:24.640 We praise you. 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:26.640 We gather in God's name. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.359 We claim Christ's promised presence. 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:30.800 Let's pray together. 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:39.039 Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:51.520 Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:52.479 Amen. 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.240 The Lord is, was, and will be with you. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:00:59.119 Let us pray. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:08.560 Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your church. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:21.599 And because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and governeth always by your goodness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:22.719 Amen. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:31.920 My brothers and sisters, not out of dread or fear, but believing that God is faithful to forgive, let us rid ourselves of what we need to carry no longer. 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:48.000 O God, you are always true to us in love, and we are left wanting to say sorry for our faithlessness to you and one another, for our forgetting the poor and broken, for our failure to cherish creation. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:54.000 Give us life, God, to change and enable us to change that we may live. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:59.120 Holy and mighty, holy immortal, have mercy on us. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:21.759 Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be worked with. 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:36.479 Our hearts and minds are open. 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:59.439 Naomi said, Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:01.680 Go back after your sister-in-law. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.680 Both Ruth said, Do not press me to forsake you, or to turn back from following you. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:09.759 Where you go, I will go. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.240 Where you abide, I will abide. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:16.639 Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:20.719 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:26.400 May the Holy One of God to thus, and more to me, and even death departs me from you. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:32.240 And when Naomi saw that Ruth had strengthened herself to go with her, she ceased speaking to her. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.199 So the two of them travelled until coming to Betland. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:39.680 And when they came to Betland, the whole town was buzzing over them. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.080 And the women said, Is this Naomi? 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:46.560 And Naomi said to the women, Call me not Naomi, the pleasant one. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:48.719 Call me Mara, a bitter eye. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:53.599 For Shadow Shaddai, the breasted one has greatly embittered me. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:58.000 I went away full, but the Holy One of Sinai brought me back empty. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:05.759 The Holy One has spoken against me, and Shaddai, or the breasted one, has brought evil upon me. 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:13.520 So Naomi returned with Ruth, and the old I woman, her daughter-in-law with her, and she was the one who came back from the country of Moia. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.279 They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:23.040 From the word of God in Scripture, the Word of God among us, or the Word of God within us. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:34.480 We will read responsibly by the half verse. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:41.439 God with your ears have we heard, our mothers and fathers have told us. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:49.439 You with your own hand displaced nations and you planted them. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:57.920 For not by thy own sword did they inherit the land, nor did their own arm save them. 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.519 You are my sovereign and my God. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.480 In God we glory all the day. 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:20.399 And this has come upon us. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:25.920 Rouse yourself. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:28.160 Why do you sleep, my ruler? 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:33.839 Why do you hide your face? 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:43.839 Raise yourself as our helper. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:38.480 And the twelve called together the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should forsake the word of God in order to minister upon tables. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:49.839 Appoint then, kindred, seven of whom there is good testimony from among yourselves, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may task to this need. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:54.560 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to ministering the word. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:15.279 For what they said pleased the whole multitude of disciples, and they chose Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Armenas, and Nicolaus, the convert to Judaism from Antioch. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:21.120 They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:29.040 For the word is of God in Scripture, the Word of God among us, or the Word of God within us. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:44.160 Invite you to join me in your blue hymnal for Hymn four hundred and ninety four hundred and ninety. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:03.040 I want to follow Jesus. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:10.399 God sent the stars to give my two storms. 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:34.639 Glory to you, Lord Christ. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:41.120 Jesus told the disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and not be discouraged. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:47.440 He said, There was a judge in a certain city who neither feared God nor respected people. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:54.879 There was a widow in that city, and she came to him continually and saying, Grant me justice against my accuser. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:11:09.519 And he was not willing for some time, but later he said to himself, Though I do not fear God, nor respect anyone else, yet because this widow persists in troubling me, I will grant her justice, so she may not ultimately come to violence against me. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:18.080 And the Messiah said, Listen to what the unjust judge says, and will not God grant justice to the elect of God who cry to God day and night? 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:20.480 Will God forbear in helping them? 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:28.639 I tell you all, God will quickly grant justice to them, and yet when the Son of Woman comes will he find faith on the earth? 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:31.279 The gospel of the Lord. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:33.840 Praise to you, Lord Christ. 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:50.799 Please be seated. 00:11:55.440 --> 00:12:00.320 This is lectionary year B, which means we're reading through the Gospel of Mark. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:04.799 So you might be wondering how it is that Luke slipped in all of a sudden. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:08.399 The reason being Mark is the shortest gospel, right? 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:14.240 It's only 16 chapters, and we will actually through this year read the entirety of Mark's Gospel. 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.720 So we've got a little bit of extra time. 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:27.120 And we're giving one of these parables at an interesting time, and perhaps you're familiar with this, just to unwind a little bit of it. 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.080 A judge is somebody of high esteem. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:37.840 Judgments were not held in courts, they didn't have courtrooms, they happened at the city gate, which is where people go and come from the town. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:49.120 Reminder, most people don't live in the city walls, they live in the fields, so they come into the market to buy and sell, and they also come through the gate to have their cases adjudicated. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:58.639 Judges were not exactly elected, they tended to be elders, they tended to have means, and they tended to have also, therefore, education. 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:04.799 It's an interesting description that the judge neither fears God nor regards anybody. 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:13.200 You may say, like, oh, justice is blind, and here's that person, but actually you're hearing that this is like the worst kind of judge. 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:17.759 Potentially highly corrupt without morals. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.919 And this is the kind of person who's adjudicating the case. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:23.759 Maybe, you know, judges like that. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:30.320 And the woman comes and she's a widow, which means she's the lowest in social standing. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:34.080 She can't inherit property because she's a woman. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:42.320 What case she's arguing, we don't know, and curiously enough, we don't even know if she's in the right. 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:44.879 Her case could be fraudulent. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:46.399 We really don't know. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:14:00.240 And of course, when we hear the story, we hear her dogged persistence that she comes day after day after day and finally wears the judge down, so much so that he's not just concerned about his reputation. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.960 He's concerned she's gonna hit him. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.279 Bring violence against her. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:08.720 I've also heard this translated that she will give me a black eye. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:10.879 Now, again, that could be literal. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:20.799 It could also be, though, it could be figurative, that if she continues to come, people are gonna say, What's with this judge not even hearing the case? 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:26.080 And in so doing, right, he might lose his esteem among the people. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:40.399 I have often heard this parable explained as how we should continually beseech God with our prayers for the outcomes we want. 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:51.200 So, we tend to imagine when we hear a story like this that God must be the one with power, and we, like widows, compared to God, are the ones with no power. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:15:00.480 So the trick here is, you see, continue to supplicate to God until you embarrass God and God gives you what you want. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:03.759 Like a small child saying, How about now, how about now, how about now? 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:07.440 But please hear the parable fights that interpretation itself. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:09.519 It says, God is not like that. 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:14.799 So God is God fearing, and God also regards people. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:27.279 So if you find yourself thinking, I need to continue to pray to God for this thing I want until I get it, please hear Jesus saying that it's not necessary. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:32.000 But it's very different from how we practice prayer. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:36.799 But please hear Jesus saying that isn't how it works. 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:40.559 I mean, that's the literal interpretation Jesus gives. 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:42.480 God isn't like that. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:48.159 We don't have to badger God until we get what we want. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:56.639 In fact, one might say very plainly, since God knows everything, God already knows what it is you want. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:02.720 And the things that are virtuous that you want, well, God also wants as well. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:07.519 And the things that are not virtuous that you want, God probably isn't that interested in. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:13.360 Now, I would do a lot of good if I won the lottery, let me tell you, I would give at least 10% of what I earned. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:14.799 That seems really good. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:16.960 What would I do with the rest? 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:18.480 God's not interested in that. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:20.080 I hope you hear that. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:25.519 God is not in the game of rigging lottery numbers so that I can give 10% to St. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:26.399 Thomas. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:29.279 If God played that game, we'd already hit it. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:38.960 So we have to remind ourselves that sometimes the outcomes we so earnestly want for, well, actually, aren't that appealing to God? 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:45.200 Even the ones that are like, God, I just want my brother to become a Christian like me. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.559 I have prayed that prayer for years. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.200 Somehow God's not interested in my brother being as miserable as I am. 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:55.919 Isn't that interesting? 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:04.720 Just a good reminder here that the things we want that we're so sure God wants, God may not be that interested in. 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:12.319 Further reminder, when we see injustice in the world, let's not pretend that God doesn't see that too. 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:20.880 And I would actually remind us to consider that sometimes we probably get the roles reversed. 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:34.400 We tend to think of God being the supreme judge, and we are the weak petitioners, but I would remind us that Jesus was not born in royalty, nor was he, nor did he ascend the imperial throne. 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:41.680 He came in a manger to a peasant family and eked out a peasant existence. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:50.400 Probably most of his life he was called the B-word, which of course we know is really an insult against his mother, not him. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:53.359 Not a lot of majesty there. 00:17:53.680 --> 00:18:01.839 So, to be honest, as we consider the incarnation, it is more likely that we are the judge. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:09.599 And we often neither fear God nor regard one another as we should. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:28.799 And God comes to us persistently, meekly, quietly, not with a threat of violence, not with a threat of violence, but more often than not, God comes so often to me that I finally just give in so God will leave me alone. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:39.200 Not because I'm deeply as in love with God as I'd like to pretend, or because I love justice as much as I self-promote. 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:42.000 God comes again and again. 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:53.759 And quite honestly, in the story of my life, I do find it to be the case that God's way of interacting with me is gentle pressure, relentlessly applied. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:59.920 Gentle pressure, relentlessly applied. 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:09.680 Not violence, not even an intervention, the kind that you used to see on like TLC in the early 2000s. 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:12.160 I'd hope you didn't really watch that show too much. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:13.759 It's not healthy, it turns out. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:15.359 God doesn't really do that. 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:19.920 God doesn't have come to Jesus meetings with me that are dramatic. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:25.519 God comes relentlessly and gently. 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:30.000 Usually when I get it, it feels really dramatic. 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:51.759 Although when I look back, that was just one of many, many, many instances in which God relentlessly exerted gentle pressure so that I would grant God's petition of justice, of grace, of acceptance. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:20:12.000 And so it makes me wonder if sometimes maybe we have so limited what prayer is that we forget that most of what we do really ought to be a prayer. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:18.240 So over and over again, we hear the disciples saying things like, Jesus, fix this problem. 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:20.160 Look, there's all these hungry people. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:23.279 Jesus, what are you gonna give them to eat? 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:26.640 Reminder, Jesus usually says, Why don't you feed them? 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:28.799 Well, we don't have any stuff. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:30.240 Jesus says, You got plenty. 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:32.079 Give them what you have, and then what do you know? 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:33.920 5,000 people get fed. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:41.839 We usually want God to fix our problems, and Jesus overwhelmingly says, Why don't you fix those problems? 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:55.440 So sometimes instead of praying, asking God, why don't you take care of hunger, it might be a more authentic prayer for us to feed somebody who's hungry. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:03.359 Sometimes, when we find ourselves thinking, God, why doesn't that person forgive me? 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:11.119 A more authentic prayer might be going to that person ourselves and getting reconciled instead of asking God to do it. 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:28.400 When we find ourselves wondering about the partisan nature of American politics, and won't God fix that, I wonder if God isn't inviting us toward gentle pressure relentlessly applied until we are part of the solution. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:48.400 Now, I've told this story before, and I just want to share that much of what I've heard about prayer in the church that raised man, it doesn't matter whether that's the Baptist or Methodist or the Episcopal Church, many of the ways we pray have to do with asking for stuff. 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:50.640 Those are called prayers of petition. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:59.200 And I've also heard about prayers of thanksgiving in which we thank God, and there's prayers of adoration, and there's prayers of there's these different categories. 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.039 But I would Like to tell you, this is really more of a modern definition. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:15.359 When you read the mystics, when you read people in the Middle Ages, when you read our Jewish, early Jewish authors, to be honest, what they tend to say is that prayer is simply an awareness of God in the moment. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:19.440 Whether we have anything to say to God or not. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:24.880 Prayer is simply being aware that God is in the room with you. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:30.160 And so sometimes we pray by doing. 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:37.519 Sometimes we pray by reimagining our neighbor. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:41.680 Why are they being so difficult? 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:49.440 Well, with God in the room, we start to imagine compassionately, there could be reasons they're being so difficult. 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:54.240 It doesn't even mean we're right. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:23:03.920 I just would suggest to you that at the end of a prayer, if we find ourselves with less compassion than when we started, we prayed to the wrong God. 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:17.519 And if we find ourselves dumping our problems on God instead of assuming responsibility with God for the problems we see, I would like to suggest to you we've prayed to the wrong God. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:28.240 This is why I think we get the Acts passage in which the disciples notice there's a social problem. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:32.000 There's widows who are not getting fed because they're Greek. 00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:35.839 See, even the early church struggled with xenophobia. 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:37.920 So what did they do? 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:41.920 They appointed a new holy order called deacons. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:51.440 And the job of the deacon is to make sure Greek widows get fed alongside Hebrew widows. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:24:01.599 Because even though we're predisposed to favor people who look and dress and talk and believe like us, God is not so predisposed. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:10.240 Hence we have an ecclesiastical order called deacons to make sure we treat people the way God wants to treat them. 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:24.079 The job of the deacon is to recognize people the church tends to forget, whether they're immigrants or migrants or incarcerated, or widows, or have what we like to call diagnosable mental illnesses. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:31.759 The job of the deacon is to treat people, regardless of their social status, the way God loves them. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:34.880 That's called prayer. 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:39.839 Quick story. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:55.920 I used to do this thing called petitionary prayer during my morning walk with my dogs, and I had my list, and I would go through my list, people, time after time after time. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:03.039 One of my people, this happened probably about 16 years ago, was this truly lovely former teacher. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:08.000 She really was a beautiful human being in every aspect, gracious. 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.720 I mean, and she presented herself as a lady. 00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:23.119 She got so sick with stage four ovarian cancer, she declined me visiting her because she would see, I would see that her house wasn't swept because she was in bed, and that would have been embarrassed. 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:25.680 So every time I called her and said, Can I visit? 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:30.400 She'd say, No, I finally just had to show up because she was too southern to turn me away. 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:40.880 Gracious, esteemed stage four ovarian cancer, which, if you know anything about cancer, that's the kiss of death. 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:44.960 She decided she was gonna fight it. 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:47.440 And I mean fight it hard. 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:55.680 The reason she wanted to fight it was because she had grandchildren who didn't go to church unless she took them. 00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:58.960 So her kids were not raising her grandkids in church. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:03.279 So she wanted to live so she could raise her grandkids in her faith. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:06.079 I mean, I just want to be honest, that's pretty lovely. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:16.559 But I've been in and out of cancer wards, and I have seen more often than not chemotherapy kill people instead of cancer. 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.920 And it is rough from my point of view. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:32.000 So I found myself praying for this woman one day as I was walking along, and my prayer for her was that she would just accept the cancer and die. 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:40.319 I petitioned God that she would just gracefully die without all of this pain. 00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:43.119 I was really well intentioned. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:50.559 Gentle pressure relentlessly applied. 00:26:50.720 --> 00:27:03.680 This was the one day in ten years of praying for what I thought was best that this voice inside me clearly said to me, could have been my head, could have been something I ate the night before. 00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:04.240 I don't know. 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:10.240 I choose to think it was God, said to me, Why do you get to decide what's best for her? 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:23.759 I answered, because I've been in cancer wards and I've seen people not only lose their hair, but lose their guts and lose their ability to just even lay in the bed without quaking with pain. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:27.680 I'm a strong arguer. 00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:41.680 And once again, whether it was something I ate or God, I choose to think it was God, gentle pressure relentlessly applied, said, but why do you get to decide what's best for her? 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.440 I probably even happened three times before I was like, shoot. 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:50.640 Maybe I don't get to decide what's best for her. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:59.440 So I found myself thinking, how do I petition God for this woman if she wants something different than I do? 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:19.279 And the best I could come up with, and this is still true today, God help her to know, help her to know where this is going, accurately what she's facing, and give her peace about where she chooses to put her will. 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:26.319 Now you may say, that is not asking God for very much. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:32.960 I think it's actually asking God for the best of things. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:40.799 Because every mystic that I've read says, we don't pray to God to change God. 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:44.720 We pray so that we can be changed. 00:28:45.359 --> 00:29:02.160 And if I knew her will was to do this course so that she could do this goal, whether it would have been mine or not, then I could come alongside her and support her instead of criticizing her from afar. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:14.480 In that particular moment, the prayer was not what do I want, the prayer was, Mike, how do you respect what she wants? 00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:16.559 And it became this conversation. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:20.000 Maybe I had it with myself, maybe I had it with God. 00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:28.799 Either way, it was a conversation in God's presence about where I ended and she began. 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:39.279 And that conversation utterly changed the way I viewed her and visited her and supported her. 00:29:42.640 --> 00:30:14.319 And I'd like to invite you to consider that God does relentlessly apply gentle pressure so that we can be changed, and so that we, like God, can go forward with our own relentless gentle pressure of love, of grace, of justice, until there are no more black eyes to be had. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:34.079 We believe in God above us, maker and sustainer of.