Reflection

“[The human being] is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for it is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.” –William Hazlitt

Prayer

God who knows our experience,

There is a vast distance between the way things are and the way they should be. We see the evils around us and we long for justice, weeping at all that is broken. Yet with deeply felt joy we laugh as well, when wrongs are put right, justice is served, and the good finally wins. It is comforting to remember that you have felt all this, too, that you walked in our shoes, weeping and laughing in the same ways we do. Help us, then, to follow the example you left us, that we might bring more of what ought to be into what is. May our mourning be turned into laughter today. Amen.

Call to Action

Keep on the lookout for an opportunity to enter another’s burdens today, and to somehow open windows of laughter.