Just as our pupils dilate to let in more light, to see more than we first thought we could, prayer adjusts our eyes to see God in the darkness.

our work is often disappointing, grueling, unrewarding, meaningless, and even exploitative and degrading.

John Calvin called the Psalms “the anatomy of all the parts of the soul.” He says there is no human emotion that “anyone finds in himself whose image is not reflected in this mirror.

The most profound ways that we encounter God are often in affliction.

And we pray that far under the surface of our lives, however easy or arduous, there would be a deep source of joy, a constant current of love that will never run dry.

When we pray for those who work at night, we are often praying for the poor, the marginalized, and the most vulnerable in our society.

There is no yokeless option. It seems to me the weary should be unyoked altogether, but instead Jesus suggests that all people are under a yoke, that it’s impossible to not be yoked to someone or something.

We ask God to shield the joyous, to protect that part of us that’s courageous enough to believe that good things happen.

Death reveals the futility of much of what we chase in life.