Prayer

 

The events of yesterday were heartbreaking.  With all the emotions that stir within me, lament has often been a faithful way to begin to process what we are experiencing.  Lament is honestly opening ourselves to notice and name our vulnerabilities and fragility.  Lament becomes possible when we have already seen how we are broken.  And once we see, we cannot unsee.  Please pray with me.

God, in the beginning, You surveyed the chaos.  Yesterday, on our screens, we surveyed a chaos unlike any other in our lives.  In the beginning, You engaged and encountered the chaos by calling forth Light.  We need Your Epiphany light to shine in our lives as we try in our own fragile and faithful way to take the next right step today.  In the time of the Exodus, at the watery chaos of the Red Sea, You made a way when there was no human way.  You wept with Your people in Exile when they hung their harps on trees and could no longer sing hymns.  You were there in the Jordan at Jesus baptism, a day that dramatically changed his life with Your claim of belovedness.  Wash over us today meeting us where we are, help us grieve the continued pains of the pandemic, polarization, and personal chaos that swirls in all of us.  Wash over us today with a grace we need.  Wash over us today, in this very moment, hearing the prayers that pour forth in words that drip in disbelief and anger and fear and frustration and lament.  Hear our prayer, O God, meeting us in this valley of shadows this day with the Psalm 23 promise that one day, by Your redeeming grace, we will bathe in still waters of Your realm.   Wash over us, watch over us, wrap around us we pray.  Amen.

May God's presence be with you and with our country now more than ever.