How do we keep expecting Christ when we’ve prayed for something to change and it hasn’t? How do we stay ready to welcome him, when we’ve gotten so used to waiting that we’ve almost forgotten what we’re waiting for?

Oftentimes in my work as a hospital chaplain, when I’m with someone whose loved one is dying or has recently died, I invite them to take a deep breath. To sigh. Sometimes I take that breath with them. (Deep sigh.) And then I paraphrase these words from Romans: “When we do not know how or what to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”

Our sighs are prayers too. Sometimes they are the only prayers we have.

Have you ever known you were supposed to do something, but actually doing it was a whole lot harder than you expected? Someone explained it to you. You knew what you were supposed to do. But when it came time to do it yourself, something just wasn't clicking.

Sometimes I wish Jesus would just answer the question instead of giving us another question to ponder. Because what exactly belongs to the emperor? And what belongs to God? And how are we supposed to figure out the difference?