Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allison.

Today's scripture offers us a wiser way of being human as we step into the day.

As we begin this first full week after Easter, I want to sit with a passage that feels especially meaningful for anyone who has been carrying stress, grief, pressure, or simply the wear and tear of being human.

Because sometimes, even after something hard has passed, your body does not immediately know how to move into joy again.

Today's scripture is selected verses from Psalm 118.

Let Israel say his love endures forever. Let the house of

Aaron say his love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say his love endures forever.

I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength

and my defense. He has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tense of the

righteous. The Lord's right hand has done mighty things. The stone, the builders rejected,

has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done

this, and it's marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day. Let us rejoice today

and be glad. There is such a striking movement in this Psalm. It begins with a declaration. His love endures forever.

Then it moves into honesty. I was pushed back and about to fall. And finally, it opens into rejoicing.

Let us rejoice today and be glad. And I love this movement, for many of us it's hard to move from pressure

into joy without skipping over the middle. We either stay stuck in survival mode, rehearsing what went

wrong and bracing for what might go wrong next, or we pressure ourselves to move too quickly

into gratitude before our body has actually caught up.

But this psalm does neither of those two things. It tells the truth. I was pushed back

and about to fall. This is such a physical line. It names the feeling of being pressed down

of nearly losing your footing, of carrying more than you had strength for.

Maybe this is where some of you are today. I know in many ways it's where I've been. Maybe

...