January 23rd

 "And he said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear;'" Mark 4:24a

Holy God,

when we listen more carefully

to those voices which spew bile

than we do to children' songs of joy,

when we turn up our devices

so we can fill our brains with 

as much divisiveness as possible,

when we quickly share the latest rants

of all the immature narcissists

rather than the impassioned pleas

of young people who care more

for creation than they do themselves,

when we devote more time to following

the braying podcasts of anger's hosts

than we do to the older folks telling

of how they developed compassion over

all the decades of their lives,

have mercy on us, we pray,

have mercy.

(c) 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman