New Every Morning
A line from Lamentations offers steady ground for a reader who is tired.
The book of Lamentations is a set of poems written after Jerusalem fell and its temple was destroyed. Much of it is grief, plainly stated. In the middle of that grief comes this:
"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22–23)
Notice where the words sit. They are not spoken from safety. They are spoken by someone who has watched everything fall, and who still says that mercy has not run out.
The claim is modest and large at once. Mercy is not stored up and rationed. It arrives fresh each day, the way morning does, whether or not we have earned it or expected it.
If today feels like the end of something, this verse does not argue with that feeling. It only adds one thing: tomorrow will come with new compassion in it. That is enough to sleep on, and enough to wake to.
More in scripture
Peace That Stands Guard
When worry crowds the mind, Paul points not to a feeling but to a practice.
New Every Morning
An old promise for a reader who woke tired.
Be Still, and Know
A single line from an old song for a nation under pressure asks the tired to stop, and to let God be God.