New Every Morning

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:21-24

I am not a morning person. I don’t wake up feeling happy, or hopeful. Dave has learned to not attempt much conversation before 10 A.M. Mornings these days, as I wake to the sounds of the kids stirring outside, tend to be when I feel the weight of all I’m called to do press down upon me. I often don’t feel up to the task of loving the people around me, cooking and cleaning, doing it all at home on and on for as far as the eye can see. Things sometimes look up from there, but mornings are the bleakest.

These verses really mean something, occurring where they do. They are the only hopeful words in the entire book of Lamentations. This is perhaps one of the most significant but’s in the Bible. This is a person in sorrow intentionally recalling hope to mind. Hope is not just something we feel. It’s something that results from what we intentionally think on. And what he recalls to mind is a God whose love and mercies are new every morning.

There is something in that, isn’t there? The sun rises every morning, without fail (I once read a fascinating science-fiction novel called The Three Body Problem which made me realize I shouldn’t take that for granted). There has never been a morning in my entire life when the sun has not risen. That is what God’s love and mercy are like. They never fail. They arrive anew each day. And through his mercy, we can “allow God to love our people through us.” As Nouwen writes:

“I remember how Thomas Merton once wrote: ‘God is mercy in mercy in mercy.’ This means that the more we come to know ourselves, the more we come to know God’s mercy, which is beyond the mercy we know. Letting go of the desire to be perfect lovers, and allowing God to love our people through us, that is the great spiritual call that is given to you and to me. There in the pure heart of God, embraced by his unconditional love, you will find the true joy and peace your heart is longing for.”