Prayer Friday

Prodigal God who welcomes us with open arms,
You invite us to choose life that isn't some mathematical equation but a mystery.
You do not keep a balance sheet where our good deeds have to weigh more than our bad ones.
You continually embrace us as the Father did of the prodigal in Luke's gospel.

We confess this is not the way of the world.
We are more accustom to eye-for-eye and what goes around comes around.
We prefer our ways of justice to Your's, O God.

So we name aloud a person we struggle to forgive.

Ourselves
A family member
A friend

We name that person not because it will magically make everything better,
But because the person is a beloved child of Yours.
We name the person so that we see him or her as a person.
Fully human with all the frailty and fumbles; broken and blessedness
That stares back at us when we look in the mirror.

The power of speaking the person's name can awaken us in this time of prayer.
We entrust that person to You.
You ask for You, O God, to move over the brokenness between us.
We know that like Humpty Dumpty not everything can be easily repaired and put back together.
Yet, we know that we need a power greater than our own to find another way.

Surround us - both myself and the other.
Sustain us - both myself and the other.
Saturate us - both myself and the other.

And may our souls feel just a millimeter lighter in this moment promising us what a trace of Your grace can do.

Amen.