I have this urge to stay up till midnight and defiantly greet Jan. 23 with a sneer, but my body is telling me that I must go to bed forthwith. My sleep schedule is messed up from having been home sick for a couple of days.

Since it would take more than an act of Congress to blot out Jan. 23 from the calendar entirely, I wrote a couple of haikus to mark the day:

The breath within me
Punched out and smothered by grief –
Joy comes with the dawn

—

Mourning this black day
One year, one day at a time
Closer to glory

My sister-in-love reminded me today of one of my favorite verses, Revelation 21:4. It is promises like this that I cling to on dark days. When I have days that I don’t feel like praising God at all and just want to have a pity party, I remember Job and imagine that Satan is taunting God to see how much he can throw at me, and it strengthens me to want to retaliate against the enemy by willfully praising God in the midst of my troubles. God is who he is, regardless of how I am feeling at the moment; therefore, he is always worthy of my praise.