The Great Litany asks us to look in the mirror before we look at the world. But the mirror doesn’t have to be theological. It can be as ordinary as the work you do every day — and what you notice when you’re honest about how you do it. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because the daylight is too bright for the questions he’s carrying. This piece starts there: in the dark, with the questions you haven’t said out loud yet, and the things you’ve been avoiding naming. Where in your own creative or spiritual life do you feel the tension between needing help and wanting to honor the people who help you? A companion to Good Lord, Deliver Us: The Great Litany as Exile Survival Kit on Functioning Faith.