6.15.23 - Psalm 69:30, 32
Gratitude is an act of opening our hearts, minds, and arms to the world around us. How might your experience of gratitude open you to those who are hurting today?
I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify them with thanksgiving... Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
There are 556 bills in 49 states in this last year debating my right and the rights of my trans and non-binary siblings to exist. At the time of writing this there are 369 active bills.
The state without any bills: Delaware.
I thought of moving to Delaware as though this state is a land of inclusion and light. When your fantasies have you dreaming of Delaware as the promised land, you might need to talk.
There are days I feel disconnected and lonely, suspicious of even my neighbor and why he is staring a bit longer today than usual as I leave the house. I just feel unsafe.
In these moments I begin to sing a song of gratitude. I started to do it out of curiosity to see what it would do to me. And it did something to me.
It binds me once again not to the shifters of legislative powers, but to the Mover of the sea.
How might you use gratitude today to connect you to God as well as folx who are feeling unsafe?
--Dax Franklin-Hicks