Wednesday Word

I invite you to listen to the above song, listen to the words, pay attention to the images, and see what is awoken with you through the melody of the music.

The above song is another by Christopher Grundy entitled, "Invocation".  Invocation is a churchy word for prayer.  And the song starts by asking God to hear us, to hear what is in our hearts.  A great place to start in prayer is by letting loose what you are carrying.  For you to name and notice what is stirring in your soul.

Pause with me...what is going on in your heart right now?
What concerns?
What celebrations are you laughing in your joy?
What ordinary moments do you find yourself coming back to from yesterday?

Go ahead, speak those aloud to your computer screen.

Then, the song continues by asking God to speak to us for we are listening.  I love the invitation to think that prayer/invocation is not only our monologue tossed toward God, but a conversation to connect with the holy. 

If we were to live this prayer today, what would God want to say to us?  If I pray, "Speak to us God for we are listening," it seems to me that I need to be quiet and still for God to get a word in edgewise.

On a deeper level the word, "Invocation" shares a root with the word, "Invoke."  In one way of thinking from years past, the prayer was to invoke God's presence.  That somehow with the right set of words we would magically make the holy appear.  I now reverse that order thinking of invocation as us, you and me, as being invoked and awoke to God's presence.  God is persistently presence around us and within us.

Listen to the music again.
Open your eyes to see the beautiful diversity of images before you.
Open your heart to name what is residing there.
Open your soul and rummage around the shelves.
Open your whole life to be invoked and provoked by traces of God's grace right now...

So that we might live that way always.

Amen.