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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and

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Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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We Gather at a solemn occasion.

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An opportunity to remember our children,

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who are lost because of miscarriage stillbirth or tragic death.

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And I would like to meditate on one story of scripture that I believe

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can guide us in this sacred act.

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Before I do that, I'd like to say something about our reading of the

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stories of scripture.

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Sometimes I think we read the scriptures too quickly.

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It's understandable.

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We are busy people.

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We have a lot of tasks we have very little time

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and so we learn to read efficiently we get to the point.

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When it comes to a story

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we skip over a lot of the details because we want to get to the end.

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I mean, why waste time on the details in the middle when you can see

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how it all turns out in the end.

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And some things are good about that

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because the end of all of our stories in Christ

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It's beautiful.

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There is nothing in this world

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no suffering,

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no sickness of sadness no death, no disaster,

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no darkness, no destruction

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nothing that could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ

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Jesus. And it is good to hold on to that and and see that

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alleluia.

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But it's not good to

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hold on to that and then and let go of all of the stuff in the middle.

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Because you know what?

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We live a lot of our lives in the middle.

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And sometimes it is a long road

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to that alleluia.

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In order for joy to come in the morning

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you need to endure the weeping that lasts a night and in an order for

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mourning to be turned into dancing.

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But before you can Waltz to walk and stumble in a procession to a

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grave.

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Spending time with the details in the middle

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may help us in the lives that we leave there.

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I'm so I would invite you to meditate with me on a story of scripture.

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We're going to look at the middle.

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It is the story of Elisha and the shunammite woman that is in second

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Kings chapter 4.

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You can find it in your Pew Bible page 310 2nd Kings chapter 4.

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Now, the story begins in joy

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when God gives this woman a child in the story ends in joy when God

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raises that child from the dead, but but we're going to be in the

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middle.

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Starting at verse 27.

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And when she came to the mountain to the man of God

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she caught hold of his feet.

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It's been a very long journey for her

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20 miles on a donkey.

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After her son died, the first thing she did was saddle that donkey and

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grab a servant

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and start a 20 mile journey to Elijah. Her husband asked her why she

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was going and she really didn't answer,

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she just said shalom.

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All is well.

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When Elijah sees are coming to the mountain

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he sends Gehazi out to greet her and ask her is it well with you is

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it well with your husband's at well with your son shalom shalom shalom

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and she says shalom,

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all is well.

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But when she sees Elijah

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she throws herself in the dirt and grabs his feet and it is obvious to

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anyone who has eyes to see that it is not all well.

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And at that point the story turns our eyes to Elijah.

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And Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said leave her

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alone.

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But she is in bitter distress

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and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.

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The Lord hides something from his prophet.

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That's odd.

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Normally the Lord helps prophets

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see that's kind of the way it works the prophet see the future and

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they preach it, right.

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The Lord has hidden something from Elijah.

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Which means

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that Elijah will not know what is happening,

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unless he takes time to listen.

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The Lord won't reveal it except for the words of this

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woman.

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And Elijah takes time.

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Gehazi, he tries to push her away and

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Elijah creates space

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for silence a silence filled with care.

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He doesn't probe he doesn't ask questions

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he doesn't try to figure out he's simply waits.

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And his presence is there to receive whatever it is

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that she should offer.

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And that is the holy silence that is being created among us today.

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A time to receive

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and that's important.

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I can remember on one hand the number of times my dad

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hit me.

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The first time was after Christmas.

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I was supposed to be picking up the needles of the tree that had got

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stuck in the rug and didn't come up with the vacuum cleaner and put

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them in a bucket, but it had snowed.

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And it was so much more fun to fill that bucket with snow and build

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myself a fort outside.

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And so there I was without any winter clothing building this fort and

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my dad came out to explain to me what I should be doing.

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We got into an argument

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I ran into the house

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he ran after me his feet were wet

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so we slipped he hit his toe on the wall and broke his toe.

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And by the time he got a hold of me and hit me

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he broke his finger.

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So the first time I was hit my dad broke things and himself.

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And the second time I was hit he broke

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something in me.

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We were sitting at table at dinner

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and the conversation turned to a friend of the family who had lost a

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child in pregnancy.

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And I asked my mom,

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have you ever had a miscarriage?

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My dad got up and smacked me and said you never ever ask that question

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of a woman ever.

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He sat down.

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And I couldn't leave I had to sit there in the shame of what I had

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done.

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That's how I learned

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to be silent while people suffer.

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And that's why this moment is so beautiful.

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Because God creates another silence that is not a silence out of Shame

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her silence out of a fear of not having the right answer or a silence

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out of not knowing what to say or not wanting to deal with it.

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It's a silence that comes out of love that knows that there will be

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some things that will never be heard unless somebody listens.

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In a holy patient presence willing to receive whatever it is you have to offer.

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That's the care filled silence that is part of our work today.

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Now just as there is something that will never be heard if nobody

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listens so too there is something that will never be said;

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if no one has the courage to speak and at this point for the last time

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or text turns us to the woman.

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I'd like to look at verse 28 and 30.

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Then she said did I ask my lord for a son?

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Did I not say do not deceive me?

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Do not lull me into peace

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do not secretly bring me into this rest do not make me think that life

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is going to be beautiful and easy. Did I

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not say do not deceive me.

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And then as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave

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you.

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I'd like to reflect on the courage and the commitment of that woman.

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The courage to talk about her son when she has not even told her

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husband.

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She had received this

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beautiful letter of life from God and the opening words of that letter

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word for heartbreaking in their beauty, but God left the sentence

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unfinished.

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And now she's on a path that she never intended to journey holding onto

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an unfinished letter that

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she can never ever throw away and it is long road for her to

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Alleluia.

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But she has the courage to speak to

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ask these questions and they are not questions that need to be

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answered.

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They're questions that simply need to be heard.

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And she has commitment

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to a community where the Lord lives as the Lord lives and as you

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yourself live, I will not leave you I will be completely transparent

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and honest and open about my suffering and I will not leave because in

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this place the Lord lives.

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That's the other beauty of this act that we do today,

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we gather as a community where the Lord lives.

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This is not like the world where people ask you how things are going.

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And you say all is well.

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All is well.

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All is well.

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No.

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This is a place of radical honesty.

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Where you are, right when you say all is not well.

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But it's also a place of radical Trust.

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Because this is the place where the Lord lives you see

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God didn't just put Jesus at the end of our story.

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It put him right in the mess in the middle.

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That's where he died.

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And entered into the grave and went into hell and rose again so that

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we would know that there is no place in this world that we can ever go

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that will not be filled with Christ's presence.

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And so we gather today some are here in a holy silence

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to wait until the spirit and others the spirit will lead forward with a

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courage to be honest and to speak but all of us are a community who

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lives in radical honesty about what is happening and radical trust in

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the Lord who lives.

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Yes, all is not well.

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And it is a long road to Alleluia.

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But the Lord lives

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and he walks with you every step of the way.

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Amen.