On Monday, in between meetings, my family decided to see how far we could walk across the Richard I. Bong bridge walkway that connects Superior, Wisconsin to Duluth, Minnesota. We had forty-five minutes for this trek. It was the first time for most of us to walk the 11,811 feet across - and we made it half-way! The experience was a combination of noisy with beautiful views.
I have a deep fondness for bridges – they always lead to an adventure, crossing water, railroad tracks, and/or valleys. In my optimistic world view, I have embraced that bridges connect one to another. I am also aware of the bridges that have been razed (in Chicago) and blocked around the globe in response to the racial injustices in our world.
As I contemplatively walked, thinking about bridges, about George Floyd’s not being able to breathe, and about the fear in all that is or isn’t happening, my heart landed on the song by Lauren Daigle, “Remember.” The words hit home in a new way,
In the darkest hour when I cannot breathe,
Fear's on my chest, the weight of the world on me,
Everything's crashing down, everything I have known,
When I wonder if I'm all alone.
I remember, I remember. You have always been faithful to me.
I remember, I remember, Even when my own eyes could not see,
You were there, always there.
Click here to watch a music video for "Remember."
We have an opportunity to remember that we are all God’s beloved and that we are called to be bridgebuilders, connecting our hearts and souls to each other.
Prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offence, let me bring pardon. Where there is discord, let me bring union. Where there is error, let me bring truth. Where there is doubt, let me bring faith. Where there is despair, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let me bring Your light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy. O Master, let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that one receives, it is in self-forgetting that one finds, it is in pardoning that one is pardoned, it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer of St. Francis)