Recognizing, naming, acknowledging our pain can sustain us, can bring us into presence with what is so that we might imagine and live into what might be.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man who failed not because he was wealthy, but because he allowed suffering to become invisible. Lazarus lay at his gate every day, and the rich man never truly saw him. That parable speaks powerfully to our moment. When migrants die in detention, when families sleep in shelters or cars, when wages stagnate while profits soar, the danger is not simply injustice—it is invisibility.

Spiritual disciplines are small, human things we practice today so that tomorrow we might become more Christlike. They are intentional ways of placing ourselves where we can become more aware of God—at specific times, in specific places, often with specific people.