In this Monday before Lent, I have a poem by Rumi to share with you. Rumi was a Muslim mystic who lived in Turkey in the 13th century. His poems are about the primacy of love. This love extends from the Eternal to the stranger that stands next to us. This poem is an invitation to help lift one another, because as we do so, we are also lifting the world. This poem has been translated by Farideh Azodi Davidson.
If you put your hands on this oar with me,
they will never harm another, and they will come to find
they hold everything you want.
If you put your hands on this oar with me, they would no longer
lift anything to your
mouth that might wound your precious land-
that sacred earth that is
your body.
If you put your soul against this oar with me,
the power that made the universe will enter your sinew
from a source not outside your limbs, but from a holy realm
that lives in us.
Exuberant is existence, time a husk.
When the moment cracks open, ecstasy leaps out and devours space;
love goes mad with the blessings, like my words give.
Why lay yourself on the torturer’s rack of the past and future?
The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities
will find no rest.
Be kind to yourself, dear- to our innocent follies.
Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance.
You will come to see that all evolves us.
If you put your heart against the earth with me, in serving
every creature, our Beloved will arrive from our sacred realm
and we will be, we will be
so happy.
Rev. Eduardo Bousson is the Senior Manager of Collegiate Ministries at The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church.
This content was originally published by The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry; republished with permission by ResourceUMC on February 17, 2026.