Preparing for my upcoming, four month absence from my cozy little home, I decided to deal with my mail differently than I did a year ago.

In 2025, a good friend collected my mail weekly and saved it in shopping bags. When I returned in June, I spent six weeks going through three bags of mail! Not fun! Time consuming! 95% of the accumulation was only good for recycling.

This year, not only will I stop my mail through the post office, but I have determined to stop it at its various sources. I made a list of all the organizations that ask for donations; and I’ve contacted nearly all of them, asking them to remove my name from their mailing lists.

To date, the list consists of 80 organizations, asking for financial support. On March 11th, I made my first contact, requested the removal of my name from the list, crossed its name off the list, and jotted down the date. It took three weeks to complete the task of contacting all those groups.

All but one organization wanted money to feed the hungry around the world, heal the diseased and broken, shield America’s police officers, and educate our indigenous children. Of course, many requests came from politicians, political causes, and missionary endeavors, including distributing God’s Word by book and by airwaves.

All of them exist because our world has been totally broken by sin. So easy to say. To pronounce the fact borders on glibness. Yet, the fact remains and is addressed honestly and head-on at Resurrection Lutheran Church as evidenced by the following excerpts of prayers offered up during its Holy Week services.

We gather this night with those complicit in the death of Jesus. A death of imperial violence which countless others have faced throughout time and place, at the hands of power, and in the name of superiority. We gather to confess our sin and our part.

You, who knows what it is to be despised, who is no stranger to suffering and infirmity, who understands the pain of abandonment, who knows the bruises worn for the sake of justice, whose friends hide their faces and turn away; be with us through this night with all who yearn for life dignity, through their tears of humiliation and death.

Teaching His apostles how to pray, Jesus addresses the sinful nature of our world. Below is an adaptation of the Lord’s model prayer from the First Nations translation of scripture.

O Great Spirit, our Father from above,
we honor your name as sacred and holy.

Bring your good road to us,
where the beauty of your ways in the spirit-world above
is reflected in the earth below.

Provide for us day by day. . .
All the things we need for each day.

Release us from the things we have done wrong,
in the same way we release others for the things done wrong to us.

Guide us away from the things that tempt us to stray from your good road,
and set us free from the evil one and his worthless ways.

Aho! May it be so!

If I didn’t live in this insanely broken world, I wouldn’t have a list of 80 organizations asking for my money. But here I am. And because they are honest and insightful, I’m encouraged by the prayers above. I sincerely hope that you are, too.