Advent. Bless

Sometimes it is hard to feel anything like blessed, or like blessing anything. Suffering is all-too real, and it is the common human experience. But it not ever all there is. Good news, no matter how local and seemingly insignificant, is also real. A couple of years ago, in a season of hard news, I asked my Facebook community to share good news. They wrote this song.

Gospel Rising

I turned on the web today; the screen filled with bad news

Guns and wars and pestilence! That’s what the headlines scream

So I asked my social network to provide some other views

For the stories of our common lives give rise to common dreams.

Gracie got a small part in the middle-school play

An old friend in Kentucky got a brand new job today

The kids are getting married; there’s a wedding in late May

There’s good news all around us, no matter what the headlines say.

           

There’s poetry arising in the rhythm of each breath

Songs in the lines of every face

Stories are the threads weaving ordinary clothe

Gospel rising up on notes of grace

Rusty’s got an art show in the Old Town gallery.

Our front porch fiddle player sounds like a symphony.

Bread rising in the kitchen smells a lot like home to me.

There’s good news all around us, if we have the heart to see.

Some say that life is pain – princess, some of that is true

But most of what is broken can still be made anew

As surely as I sing this song, someday my song will end

But for this moment grace notes are rising on the wind

Bobbie’s cancer’s in remission, and so the fear’s at bay

A friend of Bill’s recovery is going day by day

So I’m off to buy two tickets to a middle school play

There’s good new all around us, no matter what the comments say.