Christ Is Lower Still | September Song for Mental Health Care

Christ Is Lower Still from Sanctuary Songs by The Porter's Gate

Humbly, lowly Jesus
waits in the valley.
My Savior suffers with me.
With Him, I'll rise again.

If you go down
off the coast of Italy,

off the coast of Portofino,

in the Mediterranean Sea,

if you were to go and swim

to a certain place,

you'd find a very interesting sculpture.

It's a sculpture by an Italian sculptor

named Guido Galetti

and the sculpture is 

a full-sized sculpture of

Jesus Christ,

His arms raised up in the air.

But rather than displaying 

this sculpture in a museum

or a church sanctuary 

or a promenade,

this sculpture is installed

at the bottom of the 

Mediterranean Sea and

the only way to see it is

to swim down, down, down

and the further you go down,

the closer you'll be to seeing

Jesus looking up

and reaching upward to us.

And while there are many songs

that give voice to what it is to

ascend to the hill of the Lord

to find Jesus at the heights.

The Bible also tells us that

when we go down to the depths

that (Jesus) is already there.

Christ Is Lower Still

The Porter's Gate

featuring DOE and Matt Maher

2024 A.D.

Breathe in, reach out,
Touch the hem of Your garment now,
Help me, heal me,
My mind, my body, and soul.

Let the King descend,
Living Word made flesh,

Lift this heavy heart to Your throne, 

O God.
In His wounds I find
 Room for all of mine.
When from grace I fell,
Christ was lower still.

Humbly, lowly Jesus
waits in the valley.
My Savior suffers with me.
With Him, I'll rise again.

Let the King descend,
Living Word made flesh,

Lift this heavy heart to Your throne, 

O God.
In His wounds I find
 Room for all of mine.
When from grace I fell,
Christ was lower still.

'Til the earth is filled,

Christ is lower still.

We lift it all up to You, Lord.
We lift our heads, we lift our hands, 

We lift it all up to You, Lord.
We lift our dreams, we lift our plans,
We lift it all up to You, Lord.
We lift our sorrow and our pain,
We lift it all up to You, Lord.
We cast our cares on You again.
We lift it all up to You, Lord.

Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries Songs

Sanctuary and The Porter's Gate
created an album of songs
about mental health and faith.

Why create a worship album
focused on the theme of
mental health challenges?
Perhaps the answer to this question
can be found in yet more questions.

Are we inadvertently excluding or
stigmatizing members of our congregations
 by only singing certain types of songs, or
only singing about certain experiences
in the life of faith?

How can we encourage worship leaders
to think through their sets
from new and different perspectives?

And most importantly,
how can we help people
hold on to God’s presence
at all times and in all circumstances—
including experiences of
mental health challenges?

By creating an album that centers around the lived experience of people who are often marginalized in churches, and by modeling life-giving and healing ways for congregants to talk (and sing) about mental health challenges, we have the opportunity to unite liturgy and advocacy.

For more worship resources 

related to mental health, visit

Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries

Bonus Song Post:

I Don't Have to Pretend

May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.

Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇

With anticipation and joy,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Summer Music | Mirroring Ordained Mathematical Harmony

Takuya Kuroda Jazz Concert at The Red Room at Cafe 939
Boston, Saturday, April 25, 2026

Music mirrors the

divinely ordained

mathematical harmony

of the universe.

+ Vishal Mangalwadi

As one of my sons has continued to grow in his love and prowess of music through the instruments of piano and trumpet, enjoying concerts with him across Massachusetts has become a fun way to fill his early teenage years.

In receiving the gift of new memories with him with the soundtracks of jazz, funk, soul, rock, blues, Gospel, hip hop, stretch music, and more, this summer, I was gifted by my sister-in-law with a book that gives thoughtful rationale to the transcendence of music and how it continues to move and shape us as human beings. 

In the first chapter of philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi's The Book That Made Your World, the author articulates a brief development of music through the past 1,500 years that brought a smile to my face and appreciation for this gift that is part of our universe.

Writing Music into the West's DNA

St. Augustine, the author of the six-volume On Music, was a key figure in inserting music into Western education and worldview. His first five volumes are technical and could have been written by a Greek philosopher. But Augustine was most excited about his sixth book, which gives a biblical philosophy of music. 

Music is, of course, integral to the Bible,
in which the longest book is Psalms.
The last psalm, for example, asks creation
to praise the Lord with the trumpet,
lute, harp, tambourine, strings,
pipe, and cymbals.

Why are these physical instruments 

able to make music?

Augustine saw that the scientific basis

or essence of music lies in

mathematical "numbers" or

scores at the core of creation.

Since music is mathematical,

Augustine argued, it must be

rational, eternal, unchangeable,

meaningful, and objective — 

it consists of mathematical harmony.

We cannot make a musical sound 

from just any string. 

To get a precise note, 

a string has to have a specific length, 

thickness, and tension. 

This implies that the Creator 

has encoded music into 

the structure of the universe.

This insight was not new. It had been noted by Pythagoras (570-490 BC), whose school Plato attended before starting his Academy. Augustine promoted this insight because the Bible presented a view of creation that explained why matter could make music. 

Augustine taught that while 

this musical code is "bodily" (physical), 

it is made and enjoyed by the soul ...

In (the book of Job) 

God Himself tells Job of

the connection between

music and creation:

"Where were you when I laid

the foundation of the earth? ...

when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God

shouted for joy?"

The Bible taught that a sovereign Creator (rather than a pantheon of deities with conflicting agendas) governs the universe for His glory. He is powerful enough to save men like Job from their troubles. This teaching helped develop the Western belief of a cosmos: an orderly universe where every tension and conflict will ultimately be resolved, just as after a period of inexplicable suffering Job was greatly blessed.

This belief in the Creator as a compassionate Savior became an underlying factor of the West's classical music and its tradition of tension and resolution. Up until the end of the nineteenth century, Western musicians shared their civilization's assumption that the universe was cosmos rather than chaos. They composed consonance and concord even when they experienced dissonance and discord.

In the novel The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien gives us a beautiful, fictional exposition of the Augustinian perspective on the relationship of music, creation, the fall (evil), and redemption. Tolkien's Middle-earth experienced much more suffering than the Buddha's India. Tolkien's "earth" was to be captured, corrupted, and virtually controlled by evil. Suffering was real, brutal, and awful. Yet the Bible taught Tolkien that the Almighty Creator, who was also a compassionate Redeemer, was loving enough and powerful enough to redeem the earth from the greatest possible mess, sin, and suffering. This helped Tolkien to celebrate creation, both in its origin as well as in its ultimate destiny:

" ... Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of the Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. ... "

Prior to becoming a follower of Christ,
Augustine had been
a professor of Greek philosophy.
He knew that 

although music was encoded

into the structure of

the physical universe, being finite,

it could never provide 

ultimate meaning to life.

Therefore, he reasoned that

to be meaningful,

music had to be integrated

into the ultimate aim of human life,

which was to love God and

one's neighbors.

Kings Kaleidoscope Concert at Brighton Music Hall
Boston, Sunday, May 3, 2026

Roman Catholic churches began to develop polyphonic music. This style, which combines several differing voice parts simultaneously, began to flourish at Notre Dame (Paris) by the eleventh century. That development in Christian worship laid the foundation for the entire spectrum of Western classical music, religious and secular.

In the tenth century AD, Augustine's biblical philosophy of music inspired a group of Benedictine monks to build the world's largest pipe organ in the cathedral of Winchester, England. The organ required seventy men and twenty-six bellows to supply wind to its four hundred pipes. Technologically, the pipe organ was the world's most advanced machine until the invention of the mechanical clock. Europe's organs stood as emblems of the West's unique desire and ability to use the arts, science, and technology for the glory of God as well as for the relief of humanity's suffering and toil.

Augustine's biblical philosophy of music was an important tributary that contributed to the river of mechanical arts that began to flow out of Christian monasteries and churches. This tradition used technology to worship God and to love one's neighbors.

Taking Music to the Masses

Martin Luther (AD 1483-1546) took the biblical-Augustinian philosophy of music out of the cloister and choir loft to Europe's masses. 

Following Jesus and the apostles, the early church sang worship together until Jerome the Great encouraged priests to take over chanted worship in the fifth century. Since then until Luther's time, congregations rarely sang during Christian worship — and then only in Latin. 

Luther rediscovered the New Testament doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, which made it necessary for the entire congregation to worship God by singing as well as by prayer and other means. Because of his belief in the priesthood of all believers, Luther wrote hymns in the language of his people — German — and brought music to the lungs and lips of even the poorest peasants in the congregation.

For Luther, music had to have a prominent role in education as well. In putting music at the heart of worship and at the core of his curriculum of education, Luther simply followed the Jewish (biblical) tradition of temple musicians and singers who were "prophets" or "sons of prophets." An early meaning of the phrase "to prophesy" was ecstatic singing accompanied with music. King David — the driving force behind the temple worship in Jerusalem — was Israel's musician, singer, and poet par excellence. The Bible calls him a "prophet." The New Testament asked the followers of Christ to seek the gift of prophecy. In the light of the Old Testament, that exhortation had to include learning music, as did the "sons of prophets."

The modern West confirmed 

Luther's educational philosophy

that musical literacy produces people

with an intuitive awareness of

a logical and orderly universe.

It is not a coincidence that universities such as Oxford and Cambridge that have a distinctly Christian heritage still hold music in greater respect than most of the universities founded upon secularism during the twentieth century.

The Flowering of Western Music

It takes barely five minutes to walk from the Bach house at Eisenach, Germany, to the house where Luther had lived as a student, and it takes less than ten minutes to drive up the hill to the castle of Wartburg where Luther translated the New Testament into German. By the time Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born, that area had become a Lutheran province. 

Philosophically, Johannes Kepler reinforced the biblical-Augustinian-Lutheran view of creation and music by teaching that music mirrors the divinely ordained mathematical harmony of the universe. 

Bach was a musical genius

because he was a mathematical genius

who received as a part of his education

this (non-polytheistic) biblical outlook

of an orderly creation.

" ... At the school which Bach attended

in Ohrdruf the system of education

was little changed from the old

(Augustinian-Lutheran) prescription.

Music was second in importance

only to theology,

and was taught by the same master,

who believed that music makes the heart

ready and receptive to the divine Word

and truth, just as Elisius (Elisha)

confessed that by harping

he found the Holy Spirit ... "

For Bach, as for Luther,

"true music" pursues as its

"ultimate end or final goal ... 

the honor of God and

the recreation of the soul."

Bach believed that music

was a "harmonious euphony

for the glory of God."

Bach's music celebrated

life's meaning as the

soul's eternal rest in

the Creator's love.

+ Adapted excerpts from

Vishal Mangalwadi's
The Book That Made Your World,
pgs. 12-21

Chief Adjuah Stretch Music Concert at City Winery
Boston, Thursday, October 9, 2025

 Christ is all,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Summer Common Grace: Working with Jesus in the World

Faith, Work, and Economics (FWE)
can be integrated into the local church
as part of the vital importance
of holistic discipleship
in following Jesus. 

+ Skye Jethani & Luke Bobo

Summer is almost finished, so you might be thinking, "Sully, why bring up work?" I understand. Rest is a seriously good thing. And I think if we truly believed and lived in the rest God gives in His grace, we would find that the work He has offered us is actually part of His Good News and His common grace.

Ever since reading Amy Sherman's Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good, Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf's Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work, and Steve Garber's Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good and The Seamless Life alongside attending the Soma Faith & Work Summit and being introduced to Made to Flourish and the Theology of Work Project (along with Letters to the Exiles quirky and thoughtful "Creative Service" video), I have grown in wonder at the plan and purpose for humanity that God has given us from the beginning of creation that will continue into new creation. Along with Skye Jethani and Luke Bobo's Discipleship with Monday in Mind and much more, I feel we have a growing abundance of wise, practical, and inspiring resources to help us see how our work is connected with God's work where we spend much of our time.

Below are some excerpts from resources including Discipleship with Monday in Mind that help capture some of this bigger picture, so that even as you might be looking forward to a vacation or getting back to work after one, you can look for the grace of good in every nook, cranny, or alcove of your working world.

Faith, Work, and Economics
Integrated into a Life
of Following Jesus

In Christian Mission in the Modern World, John Stott concluded that, "We must begin with vocation." We must see the entire biblical text as a coherent narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, revealing God's design and desire for human flourishing. We must regain the transforming truth that the Good News of Jesus speaks to every aspect of human existence, calling us to discipleship in all areas of life.

Scripture tells us that, as image bearers, we have been created by a working God – with work in mind. That means, in part, that we have been created with community and collaboration in mind; work is not an isolated activity, but an interdependent one. We presently live in a broken and fallen world where our work is not what it ought to be. The Good News is that, through the redemptive work of Jesus, the work we do and the workplaces we inhabit are profoundly changed by the Gospel.

With a growing understanding of the church's mission in the world, we will enthusiastically embrace our congregation's everyday work life. We will grasp with new conviction and passion that economic flourishing matters and that a primary work of the church is the church at work. + Tom Nelson, President of Made to Flourish 

Infusing Thoughtful Language
as We Work with
Good News in Mind

We help each other see that everyone is in full-time ministry. This emphasis dovetails well with biblical teaching of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:4-10). So we avoid phrases such as, "secular work," "kingdom work," "full-time Christian work," and "moving from success to significance." We're also careful to avoid language that minimizes temporality. We avoid ideas encapsulated in expressions like "living for the line (eternity) rather than the dot (temporality)." We also try to eschew devaluing the material world with phrases like, "What really matters are people's souls." Another common phrase we might jettison, "Make your life count for God," since it can diminish people's sense of their intrinsic value as embodied image bearers in the here and now.

To summarize some of the key thoughts and excerpts: 

When we worship with Jesus' Church at a service, mass, or Divine Liturgy in a corporate worship setting, we step into this sacred time and space together with God to experience again how earth continues to be filled with heaven as the Word, Mysteries or sacraments, Spirit, and songs shared with the communion of saints unveil God with us again and again. 

Then, when we ask, "Hey, what's on your calendar this week?" our tangible worship of God together connects to our cared for life in the liturgy of our days, so that when we ask God for wisdom, courage, and help during our work week, we know and experience how He answers from the overflow of the Kingdom of heaven. 

We don't want people to think that worship is something that takes place merely on one day of the week. It's something we get to do when we gather, and it's something we get to do when we scatter. All work can be a form of worship that, when done well and ethically, is done "heartily, as for the Lord" (Colossians 3:23-25).

We want to be governed by the motto that "the Church is where faith and life connect." Faith should inform all of life, of which work is a significant part. We want to be Jesus' Church for the city. We want to seek to be the kind of local church that, if we were to shut our doors, the city would mourn. "There's not a square inch that doesn't belong to Jesus" (an adaption of a famous quote by Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper).

Affirming All Vocations:

Collecting Trash Matters to God

Preparing lattes matters to God. Changing dirty diapers matters to God. Cooking a meal matters to God. Developing an Excel spreadsheet matters to God. As someone once said, "If it is not sinful work, it is sacred work." Work is not only sacred but an opportunity to worship. The ability to work is a gift and a sacred practice. Work is an opportunity to worship, as we join God in the everyday invitation to represent Him.

To communicate the sacredness of work with the gathered Church, you can have "Faith at Work" interviews every 1-2 months. During the interview, ask five basic questions:

1. What type of work do you do? 

2. How do you try to do that work as a follower of Jesus? 

3. How does sin (i.e. selfishness, laziness, apathy, greed, injustice) seem to affect your work? 

4. How do you try to serve your neighbors through your work? 

5. How can we pray for you?

We can also incorporate this with the time with the kids. Child-friendly props are brought in, and teachers ask questions such as, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" and "How can you serve Jesus through that type of work?" The aim is to get children thinking about faith and work at an early age.

Another complementary approach (i.e. switch every other month) is to emphasize, celebrate, and affirm a different industry each month. For example, January can be education. February can be finance. March can be technology, healthcare, research, or childcare. Choose a person involved in that area and ask these basic questions:

1. What type of work do you do? 

2. How did you feel called to do what you're doing? 

3. What are certain opportunities or obstacles you're facing in your work? 

4. How does your faith speak to those obstacles? 

5. How can we pray for you?

One more set of questions (i.e stories of servants and stewards, 1 Corinthians 4:1) you might ask is: 

1. How do you cocreate with God through the work that you do? 

2. Where do you experience brokenness? 

3. Where do you experience restoration and redemption through the work you do? 

4. How do you sense that your work is part of God's greater work?

The cumulate effect can be holy and inspiring:

1. People have a sense of how God made them, and therefore of the good works that they are created to walk in.

2. People, in their work context, understand the stewardship or cultural mandate of Genesis 1 and 2 and what they are stewarding and what aspects of God's character are being reflected.

3. People take the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" seriously, and they see their work as a way of loving their neighbor.

4. People realize that the workplace can be a rich context in which to proclaim the gospel.

Working the Good News:
Commissioning People to Their Work

After conducting an interview during the time the Church is gathered, invite all congregants that are in that particular industry to stand and lead a commissioning service much like you would to commission someone to go to another city or another country to share the Good News of Jesus.

You can commission people in law, the arts, the health industry, at home, and more. This strengthens the vision to see all of life as sacred when it comes under the reign of Jesus instead of deepening the divide between sacred and secular.

For example, after commissioning those in the tech industry at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Washington, Pastor Ryan Beattie said a female visitor hurriedly approached Beattie and said, "It's our first Sunday visiting here. My husband had never seen his faith relating to his work." The commissioning example was powerful for this man. In New York City, Jon Tyson mentions that someone said during a similar commissioning, "That was the most powerful moment in my entire life in church. Thank you." Such examples simply underscore the fact that we were never meant to live a compartmentalized life; our faith should inform our parenting, our citizenship, and our work.

Another approach is before opening the Word, invite a person representing a particular vocation to come forward. For example, have a schoolteacher come up and read a prayer for all educators. Then invite all teachers to stand and have the congregants clap and cheer for them. Then commission all of them to go and educate. Commissioning services have a powerful ability to affirm people in their work.

Working the Good News:
Preaching & Teaching About Work

The sermon or homily in a worship service provides an ideal time to teach on the importance of faith and work integration. For example, a sermon around Labor Day Weekend with a focused prayer and commissioning time can make an impact.

In this next generation, many people don't talk about "careers" as much as "callings." We want to believe our work is more than a job for personal advancement. We want to understand how our work relates to a larger vision – how it contributes to the common good and even to God's cosmic purposes. Teaching on faith and work helps make a concrete connection on how we can use our knowledge, gifts, and talents to make a difference in the lives of others.

We can also incorporate anecdotes and illustrations that draw from the variety of vocations represented by people in the congregation. Doing so speaks of those vocations in a way that affirms the dignity of the vocation.  

Another practice during a service is to host a forum featuring people from different occupations who talk about what they do and why it's beneficial for people. After sharing, congregants are allowed to ask questions. Often there can be more questions than there is time to answer them. Then have the entire congregation pray that God would make these sisters and brothers flourish in their callings.

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Dayenu Summer | "If You Only ... It Would Have Been Enough"

The Chosen Season 5 Episode 4 Dayenu

Everything is a gift.
The degree to which we are awake
to this truth is a measure of gratefulness,
and gratefulness 

is a measure of our aliveness. 

+ Diana Butler Bass

As we enter the middle of this summer, with moments of rest and fun going to plan, or perhaps nothing turning out the way we thought it would, I am reminded again of the historic prayer, Dayenu. Lore Ferguson Wilbert provides an introduction for the curious:

Dayenu

There is a word used in song

when Yahweh, the LORD, brings His people

through yet another trial.

The word is dayenu,

meaning something along the lines of

"and if nothing else,

it would have been enough."

If the Lord God had merely fed us

during the famine but not given

us a home in Egypt,

it would have been enough.

If the Lord God had given us a home

in Egypt but not kept us

from being enslaved,

it would have been enough.

If the Lord God had brought us out Egypt

but not parted the Red Sea,

it would have been enough.

If the Lord God had parted the Red Sea

but not brought every last one

of us through it,

it would have been enough.

This was their way of saying,

"No matter what the future is,

what You've done for us

is enough."

+ Lore Ferguson Wilbert,

The Understory

A grace-filled focus on Dayenu was also reinforced by what I think is one of the most beautiful scenes The Chosen has ever produced thus far. During Season Five, Episode Four: The Same Coin, there are two scenes that we don't find recorded in the Scriptures, but would be an essential part to the Jewish tradition of celebrating Passover each year. (You can hear the Perrys and the Jenkinses humbly and humorously describe this moment in "The Meaning of Dayenu" short from the full With the Perrys episode, "The Art of Stewarding Your 5 Loaves and 2 Fish.")

The first scene of "The Same Coin" episode in season five is with Jesus and His disciples during Passover, reciting the Traditional Dayenu preserved throughout the millienia (an abridged excerpt is provided below).

The Chosen

Season 5 Episode 4

Opening Dayenu Scene

Jesus:

John, will you begin the Dayenu

for us?

St. John: 

Yes, of course, Rabbi.

If He had brought us out from Egypt,

and not carried out judgement 

against them ...

All:

It would have been enough. 

St. Simon: 

If He had carried out judgements

against them, and

not destroyed their idols ... 

All:

It would have been enough ...

St. Philip:

If He had given us their wealth 

and had not split the Sea for us ...

All:

It would have been enough. 

Zebedee:

If He had split the Sea for us and

had not taken us through it 

on dry land ...

If He had supplied us

in the desert for 40 years and

not fed us the manna ... 

All:

It would have been enough. 

St. Matthew:

If He had fed us the manna,

and had not given us the Shabbat ... 

All:

It would have been enough. 

St. Thomas:

If He had given us the Shabbat

and not brought us before Mt. Sinai ...

All:

It would have been enough. 

Zebedee:

If He had brought us before Mt. Sinai

and not given us the Torah ...

All:

It would have been enough. 

St. Philip:

If He had given us the Torah, but

not brought us to the land of Israel ...

All:

It would have been enough. 

St. Andrew:

If He had brought us to 

the land of Israel and

not built us the Holy Temple ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

So many acts of God's rescue, protection, justice, generosity, provision, direction, and more are recorded in the Story of Israel. And in practicing gratitude, the children of God recognized His steadfast love that endures forever year after year.

Jesus Dayenu in Season 5 Episode 4 of The Chosen

And then the closing scene to the episode brought the Dayenu to new life in light of Jesus and what it's like to thank Him personally for all that He does for us.

The Chosen

Season 5 Episode 4

Closing Dayenu Scene

Mary, Mother of Jesus:

If I had only been given the joy 

of holding You in my arms 

that night in Bethlehem

on a cold ground,

and not been able to see You
perform signs and wonders ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

St. Mary Magdalene:

If You had performed 

signs and wonders and

not called me by name that night ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

Eden, Wife of St. Peter:

If You had healed Mary of Magdala 

of her demons and not healed my Ima 

or called my husband 

after Your miracle ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

Tamar, Friend of the Paralytic: 

If You had called Simon Peter 

and not healed my friend ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

Martha of Bethany, Sister of Lazarus: 

If You had healed Eden 

and not raised my brother ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

Mary of Bethany, Sister of Lazarus: 

If You had raised my brother 

and not defended my honor 

when I worshipped You ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

St. Joanna, Wife of Chuza: 

If You had defended Mary of Bethany,

 but not given meaning to my life, which

had been so unhappy and unfulfilled 

by letting me support and participate 

in this  miraculous family 

that I do believe will change the world ... 

All:

It would have been enough.

I am becoming more and more aware that I need to look back, not only each year, but each month, each week, and each day (ex. the prayer of Examen by St. Ignatius of Loyola) with a posture of Dayenu ... And if You had only (fill in the blank, Lord) ... It would have been enough.

What is my Dayenu to Jesus?

In relation to the gift of my marriage?
The gift of my family?

The gift of my home and neighborhood?

The gift of work and my vocation?

The gift of Emmaus City Church?

Jesus, if You had called me to be

a church planter for only one year ... 

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if we had only formed

one missional community ... 

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if I only got to be friends

with a few of my neighbors ... 

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if I only saw one person

encounter You and see You 

change their life forever ...

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if I only got to serve at

the Lord's Table in Communion

with You and others a few times ...

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if we only celebrated

one baptism in Emmaus City ...

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if we only had the privilege to

start Surge School ...

It would have been enough.

Jesus, if You only had us

serve in anonymity in Worcester ...

It would have been enough.

To close this post, I encourage you to consider your own dayenu. Along with the example above, here are a few practices below from a fellow minister in consideration of grace, gratitude, and how Yeshua (Jesus' name in Hebrew, which means "The LORD saves") invites us with open, wounded hands to have our life sing the song of dayenu.

Jesus Christ with Open Wounded Hands by Bernardo Ramonfaur

On Gratitude 

Gratitude is the basis of all holiness.

The most holy person you know
is the most grateful person you know.
To be a saint is to
be fueled by gratitude,
nothing more and nothing less.

+ Ronald Rolheiser,

Gratitude the Basic Virtue

At the heart of gratitude is awareness that all of life is grace. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). Everything is a gift. We live on a graced planet. Nothing is earned, nothing is deserved. All of life is grace. 

And the grace of our Lord is wastefully generous. God could have made one kind of bird and instead he made 10,000 species of winged color. He could have made food taste all the same, supplying our need for daily nourishment – instead he created an environment that can produce the likes of curry, jambalaya, and apple pie. He made a world where ants build hills, water falls from the sky, and leaves change colors and regenerate in a matter of months. 

There is enough wonder and delicious diversity in our world to keep a person in awe for a lifetime. 

The degree to which we are aware of this truth is a measure of our gratitude. Plenty of people notice our world, but gratitude goes beyond observation to receiving reality as a gift. It was the original lie of the serpent that God is distant and uncaring, and that we humans should go it alone. This is still the lie that humans believe; in fact, in our culture we are taught that independence and self-sufficiency make for the good life. But the truth is the opposite – dependence on the all-sufficient Father makes for the good life. The grateful person lives in total awareness and reliance on the Father’s good gifts every moment. 

A breakthrough came for me

when I realized that gratitude
is not a passive disposition
but a learned habit.
It is a discipline of awareness
to the Father’s grace
and our own response to it.

Paul commands, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” (1 Thess. 5:18). Or just simply, “Be thankful” (Col. 4:2). I think I always considered gratefulness as something that happened to you when a happy, positive circumstance occurred. But Paul suggests exactly the opposite: the discipline of gratitude in the midst of any circumstance leads to joy. It is not the happy person who is grateful – it is the grateful person who is happy, whose eyes are open to the abundance of all things. 

So how has this changed my life? 

 | 1 |

On waking, I let my first words
be words of thanksgiving.
“Thank you Father,
thank you Son,
thank you Spirit ... ”
Waking from sleep and
having a new day to live
in the mercy of the gospel
is an amazing gift in itself.

 | 2 |

Then, throughout the day,
I look for cues that prompt thanksgiving.
My friend Bob Stamps taught me 

a simple prayer
to utter every time you experience
even the smallest good:
a text from a friend,
a sip of coffee,
light filtering through the trees.

“Hear the praise of this grateful heart”
is a prayer that I now use
innumerable times throughout the day.

 | 3 |

Before bedtime, I try to conduct

a brief review of the day —

the practice of “Examen.”
Doing so helps me remember
the gifts of the day and to
close my hours with thanks.

I don’t always keep these habits,
but even the sporadic discipline of gratitude
has awakened me to the Father’s love
and the gift of ordinary life.

+ Facebook. Widmer, Corey.
"On Gratitude."

Bonus Posts:

Love Over Fear

Becoming Curiouser

The Anxiety Opportunity

Mystery of the Trinity

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

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