Just Out of Reach

Monday, May 19, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! My backyard plays home and refuge to a collection of squirrels, birds, rabbits, and the occasional deer. Whenever I take Scout outside, he goes running after the rabbits even though they’ve figured out how far he can get on his leash and sit just outside that range. They toy with him until he gives up and turns his attention to the birds. While I wonder what he would do if he was able to catch up to a rabbit—I think he’d try to play with them rather than eat them—the fact is that they are just out of reach.

Having something out-of-reach is an experience shared by all living beings, humans being neither unique nor particularly successful in taming this desire. We all have things we want but which are just out of our reach. Sometimes it’s because of money or because we’re saving for something else. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we can’t have it because it isn’t good for us or because we won’t like the consequences. Sometimes what we want does just doesn’t exist or isn’t available to us for one reason or another. Those times suck, sure, but what’s even worse is being so close and still not being able to have what we want. It hurts all the more when what we’re discussing are our equal rights. Queer people continue to watch our rights be debated by each successive administration, congress, and court.

What do you want that feels just out-of-reach? How do you feel when someone else seems to be keeping something away from you?

Let us pray: Gracious God, in those moments when the challenges before us loom, when the path ahead seems impossible and our own strength feels insufficient, grant us courage to take the next step even when we can’t see the whole way. Grant us also the unwavering trust that your loving hand is still reaching for ours. Remind us that with you, nothing is truly beyond our reach. Amen.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben