“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”
Psalm 23: 6
Along with his work as a research scientist, my husband fancied himself a bit of an urban farmer, and as part of that fancy he decided to raise some sheep. As a nod to the well known 23rd Psalm, he named his first three Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy. Those sheep followed him all the days of their lives. They trailed behind him, and dogged his steps. One followed him all the way to the stew pot, her hide tanned for a rug. The other two plodded along behind him until old age caught up with them. They weren’t trying to catch him, simply to tag along behind him
Even people who never have or never will crack open a bible have probably heard the 23rd Psalm quoted more than once. They are familiar words, and as with many oft quoted words, after a while they can simply slip in one ear and out the other, taking any real meaning away with them.
So what does it actually mean that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives.? Is it, like Shirley, Goodness and Mercy, to follow after but never catch up to? That’s what they did, and look what all of that following got them. But what if this is a different kind of following? The kind that—as shared by one of my favorite-but-never-actually-met humans, writer, spiritual director, and podcast host Emily P. Freeman, in her Lenten Collection of meditations—means to pursue with purpose? To chase with determination? To run after with the intent to catch? If goodness and mercy are chasing us like that, why wouldn’t we want them to catch us?
These days it can feel like we are walking through a deep valley, shadowed by doubt, despair, and death. If you don’t feel like that now, my guess is that you have at some time in your life. How is it even possible that goodness and mercy can find us there? I don’t know how, but somehow they can and have and do and will. Their job is to catch us, ours is to stop and welcome them when they do. And if goodness and mercy catch us in the midst of whatever else life is brings our way, then we can extend goodness and mercy to the world within our reach. Goodness and mercy don’t mean the absence of darkness. They are the Holy Light that will help us find our way through.
It’s hard for me to know how to pray these days. But for now, my prayer—for me, for you, for those I know, and those I don’t—is that goodness and mercy will chase us and catch us. That they will find us, and bless and keep us, as long as we all shall live.
Amen.
Written with deep gratitude to Emily P. Freeman, and her presence and companionship along my way.
Photo by Tom Pierson, on our trek near the Bridge of Orchy, Scotland.