Psalm 137:1-3

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
    we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

I have been struck lately by the spirituality of people in times of hardship. If we look in the scriptures, the people of God have always found ways to draw near to God in hardship: crying out to God under slavery, worshiping in the desert, and holding to hope in the Babylonian captivity. Psalm 137 highlights the complicated emotional and spiritual burden of hardship. The church is in our own Babylonian Captivity as we are alienated from our houses of worship.

My grandmother and I share a daily devotional calendar. Each day has a prayer from different religious voices across time and around the world. Even when I fall behind on the days, I like to read the prayers and feel connected with my grandmother and our communities of faith as we seek communion with God. The prayer for March 15th was this prayer from Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“O God, early in the morning I cry to you. Help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you: I cannot do this alone… Enable me so to live now that I may answer before you and before me. Lord, whatever this day may bring, Your name be praised.”

Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a leader in the Protestant church in Germany during WWII. He opposed the oppressive rule of the Nazi party, and was jailed and ultimately killed for his actions.

The words of Rev. Bonhoeffer’s prayer show us something powerful about faith, even in this time of captivity. We cannot face the challenges of this life alone, whether sickness or imprisonment or unemployment or grief. We know that all that we do is by the grace of God. We are still called to live lives that glorify God. God is still worthy of our praise, even when our circumstances are difficult.

“Lord, whatever this day may bring, Your name be praised.” Amen.