For the Week 2, Friday’s #LiveLent Devotional, particularly apt given the state of play of the coronavirus pandemic.

***
Worn and weary
from the tears
of fitful crying
I find myself
stretched straining
like a string
to hold together;
one hand sinking
into a slushy earth
and the other
tottering like a tree
listing in a storm.
As these waters
reach my neck
as breath begins
to slip and my body
begins to yield
to these dark depths
Abba be a rock
be a shelter
from the storm
be my anchor.

For Day 10 of the CoE #Livelent Devotional, the focus being the second day of creation with water being brought forth…

***
First comes light,
making lost things
found, dark places
bright and clear
and beautiful again,
and then comes water
to wash and clean
and bring life
to all the dead
and dying things.
May the dark places
of our hearts be lit
and whole again
and our hands clean.

For Day Nine, the invitation is to reflect on light and heat and the benefits access to electricity brings to people around the world. That immediately brought to mind the Parable of the Lost Coin, and how for all the sweeping and cleaning, the lost coin is found because of the illumination light brings. Here goes then:

***
You realise
that light is good
when the thing you lost
is found, wedged between
the corner of your bed
and the cold wall,
that tiny space
worn beige by
the tyranny of time.
When in the shiver
of a winter night
you wrap your hands around
a cup of warm tea,
its chipped edge and faded art
a reminder of all its seasons of use,
you realise that light is good,
and the darkness all around fades.

For Day 8 of the Church of England’s LiveLent devotional for Lent.
***
Tell
the darkness
there is no room here,
that though small
and weak and flickering
in the wind, your light
will be a bulwark, a
hedge against the
pressure closing in.
You’re a city on a hill
a light raised high
for all to see.
Shine.

For Day 4 of the CoE #LiveLent Devotional.
***
All things –
the frail
and the sturdy,
the weak
and the strong-
hold together,
and consist in You
Who leaves
the saved
ninety-nine
to find the one;
lost sheep
who slips
into the dark
and unclear paths
where fear thrives.
You offer
redemption
and finding
and saving
from the miry clay.
Save me.