In our Daily Bread meditations, we have returned time and again to the them of comfort and strength in time of trouble.

What brings happiness?  The Psalmist says, “Happy are those who consider the poor.”  This is central to our lives as people of faith.

Jesus liked to surprise his hearers.  This little parable of Jesus is no exception.  He used a widow—the poorest of the poor and the least powerful of the powerless—and an unjust judge “who neither feared God nor had respect for people” to make a point about prayer and to encourage people as they dealt with being treated unjustly. 

Many years ago Susan and I and our daughters were camping in southern Georgia. In that region there was a mountain bike race going on. It had been raining there for several days, so the trails had turned to mud.