Saturday, March 23

As I wrote this week’s devotional, I found myself humming the tune of one of my favorite hymns again and again: Help Us Accept Each Other. Today, I invite you to reflect on its words, to pray it as your own prayer. Which verse resonates most with you? Which verse challenges you most?

Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us;

teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace.

Be present, God, among us, and bring us to believe

we are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live.

Teach us, O God, your lessons, as in our daily life

we struggle to be human and search for hope and faith.

Teach us to care for people, for all, not just for some,

to love them as we find them, or as they may become.

Let your acceptance change us, so that we may be moved

in living situations to do the truth in love;

To practice your acceptance, until we know by heart

the table of forgiveness and laughter’s healing art.

God, for today’s encounters with all who are in need,

who hunger for acceptance, for righteousness and bread,

Bring us new eyes for seeing, new hands for holding on;

renew us with your Spirit; God! Free us, make us one!