Minor Keys to the Kingdom

Christopher Jackson on Downbeat Songs for the Downtrodden

“Things have been really difficult lately” is the most frequent reason my parishioners give me for their absence from worship. Sometimes this means, “Because I work sixty hours a week so that I can afford to put my six-year-old on traveling soccer teams, which in turn saps my energy, I am so exhausted by Sunday that I cannot get out of bed.”

More often, it means illness, family disharmony, or financial problems. I always encourage them to come and receive God’s gifts, promising that these will aid them in their troubles. Yet I understand their impulse.

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Christopher Jackson is Associate Pastor at Saint John�s Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, in Lexington, Kentucky. He and his wife Mary have three children.

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