Good Courage - the extended dance mix
for times such as this
Hi friends. In so many ways my life is changing and sometimes it feels like maybe I don’t know how to catch up with who I am now. And I for sure can’t keep up with how the world is changing, and this morning I thought about one of my favorite prayers. Here it is, and also my extended dance mix.
Here’s to good courage.
-Nadia
Prayer of Good Courage
(from Holden Village)
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Good Courage Prayer – extended dance mix
by Nadia Bolz-Weber
O God, you have called your servants-
And you have such questionable taste in servants.
Your servant selection process needs some work
Because O God you have again called your
Foreign women and weary retirees
You have called your pole dancers and police sergeants.
O God you have again called thirsty
women and broken men and we who foolishly think we volunteered, as if
we raised our eager hand and you called on us when really we were
conscripted.
Oh God you have called your servants
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
I don't know how this story ends, Lord.
Could we maybe just skip to the end so I could read the last few verses?
I won’t tell anyone, I promise.
Because, If I can’t see the ending then how do I know if I am getting
close?
So God if you could please just give this servant that blue pin at the end
of my Google Map directions so that even if the route keeps changing I
at least know where I am eventually getting to. Then I’d know which
route takes 4 minutes longer, one graduate degree longer, a few
emotional breakdowns longer than the one I’m on. Should I face Moab or
Bethlehem? Egypt or promises? What I already know or what I will
surely learn?
Oh God you have called your servants
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden
We’ve not been where we are going yet.
Make a way on these paths we’ve not yet taken – through parks where
junkies fix and children play,
through starter mansions and public housing and suburban strip malls
and dry land wheat farms and cheap motel that charge by the hour if you
know how to ask for it.
Oh God you have called your servants
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Wait. Perils? Well, ok so maybe I take back the thing about knowing the
end because I don't think Gandolf meant for us to go this way Mr. Frodo. I
want to know the end and also know the way to the end but not to know
the perils that get me to the end because if I knew the perils I would
never start the journey because I’m certain I am just not peril-ready. I
am never peril-ready.
So, Lord of The Questionable Servants we’re gonna need some help.
So....
Give us faith
Hand it over. Seriously. Cough it up. We don’t generate enough of our
own so if you call us, equip us, Lord.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
Or at least good enough courage.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, knowing only that your hand is leading us
Your strong hand. Your soft hand. The one that molded us out of dirt.
If your hand can lead Jesus out of his own grave, then it is
indeed strong enough to lead us out of ours too.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, knowing only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us eternally; through Jesus Christ
…who breaks open prisons, frees slaves and captives,
feasts with the outcast and celebrates strangers.
Jesus who was so bad at choosing his friends and just as bad at
choosing his servants.
Jesus who even now stands among his faltering friends and shows us
his hand and his side and gives us his peace. Gives us his faith, gives us
his good courage, gives us his leading hand, gives us his love gives us
his support.
And it is enough for the ventures of which we cannot see the end. Amen.
You have a beautiful, divine gift for knowing just what needs to be said, Nadia, and how best, most warmly, and most effectively to say it. That's no small thing, not at all.
I needed this so badly today. Local, state, and national politics have stripped my soul of joy and deadened my hope. Everywhere I turn there are more battles to fight, legislative bills to comment on, candidates to lie to us, and friends who have opinions foreign to me. For me, today is a day to rest, to cry out for peace in my heart, and to be grateful for the lucky abundance that surrounds me when others have so little. Even abundance has a thread of guilt running through it so I will try to unravel it and just be. You were a light for me today.