September 16th

“From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17

whenever outsiders are welcomed
by those who set aside
their ingrained fears and suspicions,
another family moves into
the Beloved Community.
whenever we refuse to let
anger control the conversation,
cruelty to plant its flag in our hearts,
hopelessness place a seed in our souls,
the Beloved Community becomes
even more appealing to doubters.
whenever we give our favorite clothes
to those out of favor with the privileged,
whenever we realize the folks
living at the shelter deserve to eat
as well and healthily as we do,
whenever we treat the forgotten
as if they are long-lost family,
we discover that we are closer
to the Beloved Community
that we ever imagined.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman

September 15th

“Your name, O LORD, endures forever,
    your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.” Psalm 135:13

there, in the mist of dawns
so far back we cannot count
when language was simply
grunts and guttural sounds,
your name was spoken,
and people longed for your touch.
in the hidden places where
the fearful were tortured for believing
and in grand cathedrals with words
whose eloquence resound to today,
your name was spoken,
and people longed for your touch.
now, when anger and cruelty
seek to drag us back into that miasma
where language is simply
guttural sounds and grunts,
we still speak your name,
hoping you listen.
we still long for your touch,
yearning for you to reach out.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman

September 14th

“He raises the poor from the dust,
   and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes,
   with the princes of his people.” Psalm 113:7-8

covered with the detritus of life,
palms callused from unskilled labor,
we ignore you, but when
we fall into the cracks of life,
you are the one who pulls us out,
when we wander down alleys
where no one knows us,
you come calling our names.
not out of any pity, but pure delight,
taking us out to dinner,
not to sit in the corner reserved
for the forgotten, but
at the table where the party
has already started,
where our scarred lives
are considered to be holy.
and there, where
the poor become honored,
the empty become family,
the broken become beloved
we sit, gobsmacked,
that we are in their midst.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman

September 13th

“You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
   you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your chariot,
   you ride on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers,
   fire and flame your ministers.” Psalm 104:2b-4

Designer of dawns,
flinging stars like paint splatters
across the still skies of night,
you craft a refuge with space enough
for every question or silence,
a mercy wide enough
for every whispered hope.
you could use the mountains
to build your house, but
choose those wild waters we fear,
showing us that even chaos
can become the manger for holiness.
you ride the clouds in wonder,
whispering parables of hope on the wind,
your compassion flames up
in the dry tinder of cruelty,
as you draw closer to us,
gliding on the breath
loaned to us by the Spirit,
your Word ready to carve rivers
in the deserts of our hearts.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman

September 12th

“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.” Philippians 3:7

so many shiny things
i wanted to accumulate
and display over the years,
those tangible proofs that
i matter, i am special—
but diplomas yellow in the frames,
trophies seem to garner more dust
than oohs and ahs from visitors,
and resumes all too often
end up in the round file.
but then, i am asked
to polish the halls of power
not walk them,
to carry food and tents
and supplies to rough sleepers,
to keep searching for the forgotten
so that, together, we might
stumble over grace,
and rather than losing
what i once believed
to be beyond price,
i am found.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman

September 11th

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
   wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” Matthew 2:18

Rachel is there
in every street where tears
pool in cratered houses,
where the broken bodies
of children are carried in the arms
of parents who refuse to be comforted,
where voices, the dust of grief
turning them hoarse, drift across
the rubble of former communities.
and God?
God who once tiptoed into a barn
and slept in a manger of straw,
who knew firsthand
the fear, the flight, the exile
simply because of where
he was born, sits with Rachel
and all the mothers of Gaza,
sobbing, keening, weeping,
wailing until justice is done.

(c) 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman

September 10th

“be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Philippians 2:2b

may we not walk in lockstep
with the cruel and uncaring,
but take time to play hopscotch
with the little kids down the street.
may we not give our hearts
to the influencers of arrogance,
but share in that love
which walks with those
who shuffle in old age,
which holds hands unsteady
from too much sorrow, and
which gives away the animal
balloons which joy makes.
let us join our voices with
those who dare not audition
for any of those ‘got talent’ shows,
but whose hearts know
the cracked harmony of life,
because they dare to listen
to the Spirit of compassion
and not the polished chords
of the cantatas of polarization.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman