Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Pentecost +5 – Year A

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Oh how we like to be acknowledged. Because my voice has been heard, I’ll go ahead to the next testing time. And woe be to the god that disappoints, that does not acknowledge me.

What is life, but one great series of trust tests? a sequence of tits for tats? when you scratch my back, I’ll return the favors?

Into this reality, there eventually comes a question of what I will do with or without trust. Well? To what are you going to be true? Will you remain in relationship when the trust test falters and fails? For every 10 times you have been responded to, does the respondent receive a get-out-of-disappointment card?

Is this process translatable to what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so that you might also accumulate forgivenesses and opportunities to try trusting again?

Without falling prey to issues of abuse, what are your current boundaries of compassion and how would you contrast and compare them with previous boundaries and hoped for boundaries? In responding, don’t forget to consider this from the perspective of being on both the giving and receiving end of compassion or trust.