Kate Bowler - The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

We started blessing peopleeveryone, for everything, all the timeright before we needed it the most. We were in the last gasps of the freedom of 2019 before the long pandemic would take over the lives we knew and loved. And suddenly, all at once, we needed a new language for the daily needs and fears that threaten to engulf us all. This book is first and foremost for youour Everything Happens community. You who spend your beautiful, terrible days reading our books, or listening to our podcast episodes, or praying these words of blessing. (We seriously read every single one.) We got weepy time and again imagining the way the words on these pages might meet you in your grief and hope and ordinary (sometimes very boring) realities. (We seriously read every single one.) We got weepy time and again imagining the way the words on these pages might meet you in your grief and hope and ordinary (sometimes very boring) realities.

Learning to be useful to you in this way blesses us more than you know. Thank you to Lilly Endowment, The Duke Endowment, Duke Divinity School, and Leadership Education at Duke Divinity for their ongoing support of our medium-sad work. We are so lucky. Our imperfect days are made infinitely more bearable because we get to work alongside these people: Harriet Putman, who infuses compassion and kindness into every interaction and makes every step of this work real ministry, and Gwen Heginbotham, our very own Midaseverything she touches becomes beautiful. Keith Weston, Jeb Burt, and Sammi Filippi, who share their great gifts with us every week. Dave Odom, Katherine Smith, and Edgardo Coln-Emeric, for their wisdom and friendship.

Chris Coble, Verity Jones, and Robb Webb, for always conspiring to make new projects dreamable. And this project wouldnt have been possible without the help of Karen Bowler, who takes the charge to pray without ceasing quite seriously. Thank you to our publishing team for championing our very Jesus-y projectsChristy Fletcher, Keren Baltzer, Leita Williams, Jessalyn Foggy, Alisse Goldsmith-Wissman, Cindy Murray, Campbell Wharton, and Tina Constable. And, Kate here: thank you to Toban and Zach. For all the gratitude I feel when I see us do all the little things I feared would never be mine. Camping. Camping.

Listening to a podcast about pirates. I will never unlearn what its like to feel blessed in the ordinary dumbness of a day. This is Jess at the keys now. :) My parents are some of the best pray-ers I know. I am who I am because of (and in spite of) the two of you. Kate and I worked on this book right as I relocated to Delaware, away from a city and from the people (especially you, Kate Bowler) that I lovea transition that would have felt impossible were it not for the Bale family.

Thank you for welcoming me with wide-open hearts. Apparently, I cant believe everything they say about in-laws. And, of course, to the blessing I never thought Id deserveChristian Bale. I didnt even think to have prayed for you. Your love makes me rethink my theology a bit because, really, who could be this lucky?

for when you just need to put one foot in front of the other Oh God, the thought of trying for a new and improved me makes me tired. I am barely getting anywhere, so draw me closer to a different vision, one that sees that I dont need perfection I need love. Free me from the expectation that life should always be better. From the everyday stressors the bills, the pressure, the dependents, the existential fears about the future and the worries of right now. I am threadbare.

Blessed are we, remembering that the world is not ours to shoulder alone. Help us put one foot in front of the other as best we can. Oh God, today, give us enough to go on, give us hope to see a future, give us joy to see a present lit up by your love. P.S. And give me only enough humility to be reminded that I look terrible in hats.