• Jeremiah 17:5-8

• “They shall be like a tree planted by the water…in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

God of our Anxiety, we are well aware bad things happen that we cannot prevent. We prepare as much as we can. And then we fill in all the holes of unknown with our worry. We think that we are at least doing something by worrying. We have the freedom to worry. We also have the ability to push good things through our veins for the sake of others. Both the worrying and the pushing are exhausting. One chews at our own bones and the other creates something good that didn’t exist yesterday. Lord, help us to choose wisely. Amen.

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• “Sit and be still until in the time of no rain you hear beneath the dry wind’s commotion in the trees the sound of flowing water among the rocks, a stream unheard before, and you are where breathing is prayer.”

- Wendell Berry

God of the Poets who sit still and pat the ground next to them beckoning us to sit for awhile, we thank you for their lives, their words, and their invitation. Sometimes we need reminders to help us hear what our despair keeps us from hearing, to help us see what our grief and anger keeps us from seeing, to help us breathe when we have forgotten how to pray. Take care of Wendell, Lord, and thanks. Amen.

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• Psalm 17: 6-9

• “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.”

God of Your Ears, in our childhood, we imagined that anyone like you who could listen to so many people all over the world must have ginormous ears. Like Mickey Mouse or even bigger - like satellite dishes! However you manage it, Lord, we are grateful that you are never more than a breath away. You hear the words that never find their way out of our mouths. You understand our cries and our mutterings. Your wi-fi is never down. In a time when loneliness can be crushing, we are so grateful that you are listening. Amen

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From Deb Grant:

I have been an Artomat artist for years. Artomat makes original art financially accessible in a variety of venues throughout the country. They refurbish old cigarette machines to distribute small sized art. I am working at getting an Artomat machine installed and hosted at The Arts Center of Brazos Valley. I started a GoFundme account to help with funds for the installation. I appreciate your interest and help.

Learn more at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-deb-grant-bring-artomat-to-college-station

• Matthew 16: 21-23

• “undergo great suffering…be killed and on the third day be raised.”

God of Three Days, we have to give it to you, Lord. You accomplished a helluvalot in three days. We are like Peter. It is hard to get past the suffering and killed part. It is next to impossible to wrap our heads around the Third Day part. It is easier to suggest you come up with a better plan. If we could imagine a better plan, couldn’t you? Our problem is that whatever plan we imagined, we couldn’t pull it off. So here we are…here we are the people of the Third Day who understand suffering and death and when we are honest, we know something about being raised. We have you to thank for that. Amen

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• “You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it. ” - Mary Oliver

We’ll take grace, Lord. And like the poet, we don’t know what it is exactly. Grace can be as solid as the face we hurt but did not turn away. Grace can be a tender brush across our shoulders when we thought we were invisible. Grace can be like water from a faucet we count on being there every time and still take it for granted. We don’t know the depth of the source of grace. We cannot invent it in a lab. We cannot stir it up in a recipe. But we will eat it up. We don’t know what it is exactly, but we will take it. And by your grace, Lord, we will offer it to others who don’t know what it is exactly. Amen

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• Psalm 26:1-3

• “…for I have walked in my integrity…Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind.”

God of our Conscience, we shy away from being tested. We tense up. We worry that we will fail. We make decisions by the severity of the consequences. We know the difference between right and wrong. We know how those differences can be erased and twisted. At the end of the day, we are less bold to be tested and more worried there will be a test. There is one test that is harsh and unforgiving that measures us by the rules we have honored, broken or stretched. There is one test that looks to how much we pay attention to how closely you have walked with us. And if we answer, “Today, not so good, Lord,” we imagine you saying “Tell me about what’s going on. Take my hand. It’s a new day. Amen.

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• “Be curious. Not judgemental.” - Walt Whitman, with a little boost from Ted Lasso

God of Curiosity, we would rather not admit that there is something we don’t know. Sharing our knowledge and opinion has become a virus and infected us all with myopia. We can’t see beyond our noses. Curiosity widens our lens, opens us up. We ask a question and our vision explodes from black & white to a prism of colors and lights. May we, in this day that you have made, look up and out and wonder outloud. Amen

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• “The primary and most beautiful of Nature’s qualities is motion.” - Marquis De Sade

God of All that Moves - our universe, our galaxy, our solar system, our earth, our atmosphere, our water, our plants, our bodies, our creatures, our thoughts and time. We resist change even as we know resistence is futile. We are vulnerable to decay and we have agency to choose to live each day with gratitude and grace. Help us, O God, to lean into the motion of our lives with less fear and more wow. Amen.

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• “Lighthouse humans don’t stop the storm. They stop you from believing the storm is all there is. They remind you the shore still exists even when you can’t see it.” - Whit Smith

Oh God, this is what we need. Lighthouse humans. Throughout scriptures you sent such people into the world. They were called prophets. Their task was difficult to stand at the precipice of the danger and be exposed to criticism. All for the purpose of shining a light on the storm, lest it be denied. And to stir faith to believe that life-giving truth exists. There are such people among us. Help us to pay attention. Amen

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• “ What is Real?….by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

God of Real, we hunger for authenticity in a world of virtual, digital, wireless signals bouncing through the air. It is not nostolgia. We are not that naive about the good old days being all that good and they certainly were not that good for everyone. Our hunger is deeper still. We want to have our hair loved off and be very shabby and not ugly to anyone who matters. We think we want to make a good appearance. What we want and what we are capable of giving is love that is so real, the rest really doesn’t matter. May we receive that kind of love today and may we give it. Amen

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• Matthew 8: 5-10

• “…but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.”

God of Healing, we want it now, for ourselves, our people, our world. Sigh. We know….it’s complicated. We don’t understand your power to heal and who you choose to heal. As Jesus, you didn’t choose. The people came to you. So we come to you in prayer. Please heal! It happens for some, but not for all and we are left to trust that the task will be finished eventually. Lots of unknowns, Lord. What we do know is that you want to make things whole. You do not take pleasure in brokenness and pain. We trust you. That is complicated too. Lord, let us lean into what we both want for ourselves and others - that we might be whole. We believe you want the same. Amen.

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• Romans 11:25-29

• “I want you to understand this mystery, so that you might not claim to be wiser than you are…”

God of Mystery, we want to know it all. We are insatiable consumers of the Information Age. We like what we can know. We like the power of twisting the facts. We pound the ground like a toddler denied when we are confronted with the knowledge that we can’t know it all. The quality of lives depends on how we respond to that. We need to know some things. Denial is not a good option. To choose to live with a mystery as creative as you, O Lord, and as sublime as those who love us unconditionally is a good option. It beats being a toddler all our lives. Amen.

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• Psalm 87: 1-5

• “ ‘This one was born there,’ they say.”

God of Our Birth Place, like our name, our place of birth is chosen for us and marks our identity for the rest of our lives. We may move around far and wide, but the reputation of that place tags along in the language we are taught to speak, with the sound of an accent, the name for a milkshake or a sandwich, or whether or not we are known as warm or cold, bad or good. We spend our lives bragging about our birth place or trying to slough off the bad name of it. Forgive us, Lord, for damaging the reputation of the birthplace of others just to make ourselves feel better. Today, Lord, help us to be grateful to have been born and to find ourselves on this incredible journey with folks from all over and with you. Amen.

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• Matthew 15: 25-28

• “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Woman, great is your faith!…’”

Bless Our Crumbs, O Lord. The ones dropped or tossed or dismissed as too small to matter. Even a crumb is still bread. When lost, we look for crumbs dropped for us on the trail through the wilderness. We remember those who dropped morsels of wisdom that have proven to sustain us. Moments of joy or healing that last a minute and feed us for a lifetime. We give you thanks that your table of compassion, healing and wisdom. We give you thanks for all those crumbs that feed us still. Amen

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• Luke 1: 46-49

• “My soul magnifies the Lord…”

God of Mary and Dolly and Silver-Lining Miners, we give you thanks for the relentless spirits of a pregnant teenage girl, a country music song writer who just loves creating something beautiful that didn’t exist in the world yesterday and all those marvelous people in our lives who make our eyes roll with their ability to see a pony in a pile of poo. They drive us crazy AND we couldn’t live without them. May we magnify the Lord today in all we say and do. Amen

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• Psalm 67:1-5

• “Let the peoples praise you…Let the peoples praise you…Let all the peoples praise you…”

God of Liturgy, that churchy word for the work of the people is boring for some and comforting for others. Yes, the phrases repeat. Over and over again. Repeat until the thrum of syllables becomes a beat that reaches our hearts like a metronome companion, a compassionate pacemaker. When we move into our day, we carry the tune, the pace, the comfort of a mercy song that plays in a loop in our soul. Praise to you, O God, praise to you. Amen.

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• Matthew 8: 23-27

• “And Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you afraid?”

God of the Amygdala, the tiny fist of brain synapses is the fleshy engine of our emotions especially fear. It is the power source of survival instincts and a toolbox of experiences. Fear is the thug that enjoys the power of reacting faster than we can think to keep us alive. Left un-informed or ill-informed, fear begins to see everything and everyone as a threat. Oh God, help us to be better stewards of our own anxious anatomies. Help us to ask ourselves that question you asked the disciples in a storm: ‘Why are you afraid?’ Amen.

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• Psalm 18:16-19

• “He delivered me from those who hated me…because he delighted in me.”

God of Delight, thank you. Thank you for creating us, for giving us all that we need to thrive and survive in gut wrenching days of grief and uncertainty. Thank you for not defining us by our past mistakes. Thank you for choosing not to hate us. Thank you for taking the time each day to discover us anew. Thank you for delighting in us. May this day be another opportunity to marinate in your grace for our own sake and the sake of those around us. Amen.

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NOW AVAILABLE at Jazzwater.com with a SPECIAL REQUEST

Stony the Road: Contemporary mosaic by Deb Grant, 2026

SPECIAL REQUEST: The list price is for SHIPPING only. I will send the art piece to the first person who pays the shipping cost and who emails me (revdeb@jazzwater.com) a receipt for a donation of any amount made directly to the National Museum of African American History & Culture

18”x5” - Wood frame, unique handmade ceramic piece(by Fire and Fused pottery), repurposed barn wood, Italian marble, smalti glass.

Inspiration: Song - “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as it represents the suffering and resilience of groups of people who have endured and lost much in the history of our country and who today seek to remember the past and change the road ahead for their children. In honor of the 250th Anniversary of the United States of America.

• “Everyone has a story or struggle that can break your heart.” - Brene Brown

• “We are all mere beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.” - D.T. Niles

God of Our Stories, from childhood we are introduced to stories. As we grow, our own stories unfold. Some are told. Some are hidden in hearts. We are all fed by one another’s stories. To compare them is neither helpful nor wise. The purpose is to share them so that we become entwined in all the stories including and especially yours. Help us to imagine, build and create safe spaces in which we can hear and participate in these stories that can break our hearts and find healing. Amen.

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• Psalm 85:8-12

• “Faithfulness will spring up from the ground…”

Holy Ground, we are ready to step out of our air-conditioned shelters to stand in the sun and feel the grass between our toes. In this rarified space between heaven and earth, we wait to meet the faith that springs up, that seeks a vessel to carry hope to the parched. We are that vessel. You, O Lord, are that hope. Fill’er up. Amen.

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