Goodness
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
It all feels like too much.
The headlines bring more heartbreak.
The feed scrolls past like a slow-moving train of disasters.
You think, “How are we supposed to keep going through this?”
You’re not imagining it. This world is heavy.
It asks too much of us. It stretches our compassion, wears down our nerves, and dares us to keep hoping in the middle of it all.
Here’s what I’m still learning:
Goodness hasn’t gone anywhere.
It shows up quietly in unnoticed ways.
It shows up in the friend who texts “thinking of you” at just the right moment.
It shows up in the meal someone cooked, the forgiveness someone offered, or the peace you found for just five minutes on a front porch with your coffee.
Goodness lives low to the ground and close to the heart.
It slips in through the cracks when you thought everything was sealed shut.
Some days, goodness will be given to you.
Other days, you’ll be the one giving it.
A word.
A moment of presence.
A pause when you could have reacted.
You, simply being here with your tired heart and your open hands, are part of why this world hasn’t tipped over.
You’re one of the quiet lights still flickering in the dark.
That’s not sentimental. That’s sacred.
If you’re reading this and wondering how you’re supposed to show up in a world that keeps breaking, let me tell you:
You show up as yourself.
You don’t have to fix everything.
You don’t have to be anyone else.
Goodness is still real, and you are part of it.
There is still goodness.
There is still you.
That’s enough to begin again.
Grace and strength to you today,
Richard
Richard Bryant
The Rev. Richard Bryant is an elder in the North Carolina Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. This post is republished with permission from his blog, Elevate the Discourse.