A Blank Page Ago
I thank my God always when I mention you in my prayers. I pray that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ. – Philemon 1:4, 6 (NRSVUE)
By the time you read these words, days, weeks, months, or even years have passed since I wrote them. Today, it’s just me and what was a blank page a sentence ago. When I first started writing for the UCC Daily Devotional, it was daunting to figure out what I could possibly say to the invisible audience with a diversity of identities, beliefs, and experiences with some level of coherence and meaning. All these years later, it’s still daunting considering how, realistically, I may never meet most of you.
Taking my cue from Paul who wrote to people in this manner constantly, I want to shift that reality a smidge and write to you directly on purpose. Whether we’ve met before or not, whether we know of each other or not, whether we’ll meet in this lifetime or not, know that I thank God for you.
To the self-proclaimed fangirls who read scripture together, I thank God for you. To the theologians turned politicians, I thank God for you. To the liminal space dwellers who grasp the worlds behind my words, I thank God for you. To the grieving who’ve shared tender stories of loss, I thank God for you. To the spiritually curious who remain open to new perspectives, I thank God for you. To the humans of animals who’ve kept faithful company, including 35-year-old Croaker the frog, I thank God for you.
Whoever you are, wherever this finds you, however long it’s been since I wrote it, I thank God for you and I pray…
Prayer
“…that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ.”
About the AuthorPhiwa Langeni creatively invites others into transformational liminal spaces between what has been and what is yet to be. They currently serve as the Associate Conference Minister for Equipping Leaders in the Southern California Nevada Conference UCC.