Practicing Release – Psalm 88

O Lord, God of my salvation,
at night, when I cry out before you,
let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry. -Psalm 88:1-2

Fall brings dramatic noticeable changes to the plant life in rural Virginia. Fall is even more dramatic for its reminder that winter is on its way. This season of orange and yellow leaves repeats the message that change is here and more change is coming!

Change isn’t an easy experience and implies releasing our old ways of doing things.

As Sherah-Leigh reflects in this excerpt from our soon to be released book Psalms in All Seasons: Timeless Practices for Dwelling with God:

“The invitation of autumn is that of release. Just as the deciduous trees drop their leaves and crops are collected separating kernel from shell, wheat from chaff, so too, there are things we have been carrying that we need to let go of. Fall is a season that reminds us of the value, purpose, and even the beauty that can be found in relinquishment. .  . Perhaps the soul work of autumn is an invitation to consider change in our lives. What has changed? What do we long to have changed? What might we need to process and grieve? And what might we need to release to make space for what is next or the new?”

Wishing you the grace to embrace change as you live into this autumn season.

Coming soon…

Life is ever-changing, and we each participate in the ebb and flow of want and fulfillment; the cacophony of busy-ness and the gentle quiet of spaciousness; the quickening of creativity and winds of change. Our seasons of life change and come around again, so much like the seasons of the year.

Our newest book is a gentle companion for surrender and transformation in the ordinary of your life. It’s accompaniment through frightening wilderness and the messy middle of soul work.

We invite you to join us in weaving together Scripture, reflection, and practice in each season. Not only does this function as a grounding for us, but it allows us to engage in rituals that can be our midwives through transitions that come in our days and throughout the year.

Psalms in All Seasons is organized by the four seasons, moving from winter through to fall. Winter highlights the theme of rest, while spring encourages readers to reflect on renewal. Growth and summer are paired for thought, and finally fall with the theme of lament. 

The Psalter is filled with the prayers of God’s people. Communal and individual, it recognizes that well-being and shalom require truth-telling. It is a record of persistent hope and trust that God cares about the happenings of our lives, and that with God transformation is always a possibility.

It is our hope and prayer that the ancient words of Scripture alongside contemporary words of blessing will enrich and enliven your faith. And that through individual and communal practices offered, you will cultivate an awareness and attentiveness to God’s nearness so that God’s healing and hope may flow to and through you in all the seasons of your life.

Psalms in all Seasons: Timeless Practices for Dwelling with God (Herald Press) will be released January 19, 2027. Pre-order your copy now! 

Transitions

It has been quiet on our Some Comfort and Joy blog for a while! While it has been quiet here, it isn’t because we haven’t been writing. Sherah-Leigh and I have been busy creating and writing another book. More on that next week!

While the seasons are changing outside, we have been going through lots of transitions personally too. In addition to writing a new book together, both our careers have taken new directions with Sherah-Leigh beginning work as a counselor, and Gwen switching from elementary to middle school library work.

As I watch the leaves begin to change color and the evenings get cooler, I am reminded that change is always present. Sometimes I feel weary about the consistent need to adjust my viewpoint and continue to learn from the new experiences each day brings. But I am comforted and reminded by creation around me and the promises in scripture that God is present with us as we walk through life.

May God’s presence be near to you this week.

The New Year is Here!

Thank you for journeying with us again this Advent season. We are delighted to share our reflections, practices and books with each of you.

As I look ahead to the new year, one image sticks with me. It is a simple picture. I can envision myself on one of my daily walks up and down our long Virginia driveway – and there walking beside me – is Jesus! I have many questions and there are so many mysteries in life that do not have clear answers. In the midst of life’s ups and downs it is a comfort to know I am not alone.

I hope you can place yourself in the midst of God’s presence and love in the upcoming year.

Sherah-Leigh and I are working on another book together in the year ahead, which will be published at the beginning of 2027. We haven’t decided on what new blog series we will be doing yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do!

Wishing you all of God’s abiding presence in the upcoming year!

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.

A different kind of waiting…

from the conclusion of Unhappy Holidays: Blessings for a Blue Christmas (Herald Press, 2025).

Nature’s rhythms remind us that fallow times are necessary, that periods of dormancy bring growth. We are now invited to a different kind of waiting.

Throughout Advent, we have made our preparations. We have honed our skills for waiting, noticing, and anticipating. As we turn the page on the calendar to a new year, we are invited to mark Epiphany, a celebration of the arriving light.

The word epiphany means an appearance or manifestation, specifically of a deity. But it can also signify a sudden insight or intuitive perception. In mid to late winter, we look for the signs of illumination and revelation relating to the wonderings and worries we hold. This is now the season for honoring what has happened in the hiddenness of the dark, even as we welcome the dawn and notice growth, newness, and transformation. We can name where we have experienced the nearness of God recently.

Epiphany connects us to the ongoing story of God. We bear witness to the light that has come and notice where the light shines on. We join the long line of light bearers following in the way of Jesus, holding on to hope for redemption, restoration, and the revealing of shalom in all places for all people.

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.

“Embodied Christ”

from Comfort & Joy: Readings and Practices for Advent (Herald Press, 2024)

Our embodied existence includes times of great joy and times of suffering—both can even be wrapped into one experience. Sometimes my middle schooler will exclaim, “I am so sore!” after a particularly taxing game of soccer or a demanding physical education class. When I comment that perhaps he could slow down his movements and lessen the hurt afterward, he disagrees. He experiences such joy when exercising his physical body that to decrease his efforts seems impossible.

Embodied living is a beautiful gift from God. Learning to listen thoughtfully to the messages from our God-created human form can increase our awareness of our whole being. And listening to our spirit and acknowledging our humanity can draw us closer to God.

The wonderful, holy event of God coming among us is the story and the promise retold each year during the Christmas season. God created us in
human form. Christ came as Emmanuel, God with us. Our bodies are holy and cracked vessels that are able to carry out God’s kingdom work in the world; the shepherds most likely had their faults, yet they are some of the first humans to respond to Christ’s birth by “glorifying and praising God” (Luke 2:20). They physically ran toward God and visited the Christ child.

As we turn our bodies toward the new year, may we reflect on the holiness of embodied life and listen to the messages our bodies send us. May we thank God that our bodies allow us physical expression of a spiritual existence. May we consider the gift it is that the advent of Christ happened in a body. And may we thank God again that each of us has been given the gift of a finite, beautiful, holy, created body.

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.

Blessing for the Dawn

from Unhappy Holidays: Blessings for a Blue Christmas (Herald Press, 2025).

As we mark the longest night and now anticipate the growing light…

Blessing for the dawn

On the wild edge,

on the threshold,

when you are unsure, longing, and vulnerable

may you be held with love.

In the distress,

In the defeat,

when you find that you dwell in the dust

may you find the hidden place of peace.

In the long night,

in the holding vigil,

when you are betting on daylight:

may you awake to joy.

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.

“Blessing to Love”

from Comfort and Joy: Readings and Practices for Advent (Herald Press, 2025)

May we grasp
impossibly
the breadth of

God’s Love

May we be transformed
miraculously
in the height of

God’s Love

May we overflow
abundantly
filled with the depth of

God’s Love

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.

Blessing for the Waiting

from Unhappy Holidays: Blessings for a Blue Christmas (Herald Press, 2025)

When the light is dim,

and I wonder . . .

Remind me that you come near;

for I am waiting.

I am expectant.

I am preparing;

for I know you work wonders.

For healing,

for reconciliation,

I am waiting.

You announce mysteries.

You choose the surprising.

You keep hope alive.

You fulfill your promises.

You transform the ordinary.

You make a way when there seems to be none.

And I am waiting.

And so may I not only know,

but also practice believing.

While I am waiting.

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.

“Grace and Peace to You”

from Comfort & Joy: Readings and Practices for Advent (Herald Press, 2025)

In Matthew 1, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. Most likely Joseph did not have access to written scriptures. He wasn’t part of a culture where the wonders of dreaming were explained through psychology. God used an avenue to communicate that Joseph left open, a dream, to send him a message. This is amazing, since on his own Joseph would have done the kind and culturally appropriate thing of “dismissing Mary quietly” (Matthew 1:19). Instead, God pursued Joseph through a dream to bring about God’s loving plan to save God’s people. By God’s loving grace, Joseph was not left alone to discern the correct path before him.

God still pursues us today. Maybe not with dreams . . . or maybe so. But God’s love does search for us and find us, inviting us to participate in bringing God’s plan into the world. Our job is to listen with the door of our heart open, be willing to wait, and trust that God will come with grace and be with us. Knowing that God—in an effort to share love with us—seeks us has brought a sense of peace to my spiritual journey. We, like Joseph, are invited to accept God’s gracious gift of love and the peace it can bring this Advent season.

God, thank you for seeking and pursuing us with your love. May we accept the grace and peace you extend to each of us. Amen.

We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.

Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.