Today as the weather changed from sunny one minute to the blackest of clouds as a rain/hail/snow storm quickly rolled through, I was thinking about how this winter felt particularly long.
When we found out it literally was the darkest winter in 80+ years, there was a collective sigh of relief that it didn’t just feel dark in our little corner. In fact, we weren’t alone in that feeling, that darkness was very real.
In my conversations throughout April, there has been a consistency among them of exhaustion, weariness and tentative hope.
When the attached prayer was shared at a recent meeting, the middle section stood out, in particular, relating to this month’s Missional themes. It reminds us what it actually looks like to approach any relationship with humility and servanthood.
It also reminds us that many aspects of humility and servanthood don’t require any ‘extra’ work, only intentionality in what we are already doing.
Let’s “dare to ask” as we keep striving to be “the hand of God, in the heart of the city.”
Erin
[By: Ted Loder]
We ask only a few things more, O God,
a few small, mustard-seed size, faithful, saving things:
to walk with you each moment without plotting for tomorrow,
and so to really consider the birds of the air, the lilies of the field,
and find the treasures hidden in the round of the daily,
to learn by leaning into your Spirit,
to be present to others without preoccupation,
to engage without having to win,
to disagree without being judgmental
to accept outcomes without despair,
to succeed or fail without misplacing hope,
to tune to the bracing hum of the stars,
to fathom enough without dismissing fathomless mystery
of your creation, our brothers and sisters,
and the grace and mercy and power of your embrace that holds close
each small one of us, and everything all together;
In Jesus name,
Amen.