Praying Our Prodigal-ness

 

God of all seasons and stories that stir within and around us.  We name with You places right now where there is a holy rhythm and routine that is working, a holy orientation.  This could be around our breakfast that we enjoy every day to a relationship that is filling us to petting our dog that calms us.  This could be in the holy rhythm of Sunday worship, Bible Study, and fellowship times.  This could be in our connection to neighbors.  We give thanks for those places, however fleeting and fragile, that are stable right now.

And God, we name with You our dizzying disorientations.  Where we can’t see two inches in front of us amid the foggiest and unawareness, where the world is messy and blurry and feels too chaotic.  This could be not only what swirls within us through the news, but also what we hear from friends and family ~ illnesses or grief or pain that we don’t have a magic wand to make disappear and we may feel like what we said is making it worse!  Meet us in the whirlwinds of life of disorientation, just as You met Job there.

God, we offer to You the faint outlines of what appears on the horizon.  Those new tiny fragile shoots of greenery springing forth from the soil of our souls.  This could be new volunteer opportunities, new relationships, new ways of seeking to enter a life-changing loving relationship with You. 

And for those parts of our story that don’t fit neat and tidy into one of these boxes, we offer that to You too, O God.  Surround our prodigal-ness with Your persistent patience and presence that loves us as we are and as we are becoming.  God You are like a great chef in the kitchen mixing and stirring the stew of all that is within us and around us.  In the name of the One who is still cooking alongside us the recipe of our life in the kitchens of our souls.  Amen.