Prayer Sentences #5

 

Sometimes it is good to rewind and review where we have been in the last week.  This is not an evaluation ~ there are no grades ~ just a wayless way we are all trying to travel.  We started the week with this thought:

 

May I cease to be annoyed that others are not as I wish they were, since I am not as I wish I was.

 

Maybe there was an idea you had on Monday that seemed fabulous and filled you with enthusiasm.  Now today, you are wondering, how could you be so foolish?  Who was that person who thought that would work?  Or maybe you were able to engage one person as God’s beloved rather than someone you had to fix or save or cajole to catch up with you.

 

We continued the week with this beautiful invitation:

May the reality that I cannot know the whole truth never keep me from bearing witness to what I can and do see.  I love blending that sentence with the with from Wednesday: Before I see someone as a problem, may I see him/her/them as a human being.

 

Both are true.  We find ways to speak the truth in love and other times I want a rewind button to shove my words back in my mouth because my idea now is cringeworthy.  It can be tempting to run away.  The cliché we live by include that the grass is greener on the other side…or that things will be better when I am there (on vacation, new volunteer opportunity, or  a different group of friends).  Yet, we know that our problems tend to sneak into the luggage when we escape on vacation or relocate to a brand-new city thinking ~ “New place, new me!”  Too often the same old me shows up in the mirror of the bathroom before all the moving boxes have been unloaded!  Genesis 2 tells how the first human was lonely and God tried to make a companion.  I love how God originally thought that the porcupine or platypus or python would be a good mate!  I want to say, “Really God, a snake?!?”  But it was only another featherless biped who helped us flourish and find our fullest expression.  After years of fanning the flames of fear from 9/11 to political speechifying that vilifies the other to economic gaps that keep us further apart than the Grand Canyon to church buildings that confine us and tell us who is in our tribe.  Because of all this, we prayed this prayer yesterday, May my limitations be doorways to partnership and relationship rather than reasons to feel shame and isolation.  And after twenty-four hours, I think, “Boy that one is going to take some time.” The neuro pathways in my brain have formed ruts that make this difficult.  The invitation to let my vulnerability be a way of connection to others is not something I practice.  Perhaps today’s prayer sentence will help you find a way to live our interconnectedness:

 

May I take joy in bearing witness to great deeds and works without having to be the source of them.

 

May you find one moment today when someone else’s joy lets lose your joy.  This could be because it is their birthday or anniversary.  It could be because they just returned from a trip.  It could be because they share an insight or idea or new volunteer opportunity.  May you and I find ways to taste the goodness of life without always needing to be the cook in the kitchen creating the meal.  Alleluia and Amen.

 

If, in moving through your life, you find yourself lost, go back to the last place where you knew who you were, and what you were doing, and start from there.
-Bernice Johnson Reagon