Sunday Prayers + Anne Lamott

And other stuff...

One Pizza.

Sunday Prayer

Dear God,

No one is saying or doing exactly what I think they should right now, and I can only assume you are as disappointed in them as I am. People are too clueless to pull their mask up from their chin so it ACTUALLY COVERS THEIR MOUTH.  Grubhub never delivers everything I paid for. And yesterday my boyfriend didn't offer to take the dog out in the morning. So I’m just handing them all over to you for the day – this mess of lumpy, inconsistent people, because my attempts to control them are clearly not effective. 

But God, the thing is, my attempts to control myself aren’t working either. I still haven’t started practicing yoga every day like I keep saying I will. Yesterday I lost my cool with a GE customer service rep. And the “Covid 19” I gained this year is not budging, for which I am merciless to myself. So I am remanding myself into your protective custody, because you are always kinder to me than I am to myself. 

Help me see that it is my unfair expectations of myself and others, and not our failure to meet those expectations that is making me miserable. Help me stop looking for what is missing, so that I can appreciate what is present, even if that means being grateful to have one pizza, when I ordered and paid for two (Help us, Lord). And if you have some extra blessings to throw around, I have a feeling that those GE customer service reps and Grubhub delivery drivers could use a hook up. (Help them, Lord).

Amen.

Anne Lamott’s new book, Dusk, Night, Dawn; On Revival and Courage is now out and I’m already ⅔ of the way through it.

Here are a couple of my favorite lines so far:

“Defeat has been, for so many of us, the portal to the soul”

“I believe in antibiotics and chemo and also the laying on of hands, so sue me”

and this gem on forgiving others:

“I want to contribute to the aquifer that runs underneath our communities, of people who have made peace with others against all odds, because that groundwater helps restore and sustain life”

Anne Lamott has promised to be one of the first book club author interviews for our new community space, The Chapel.

In case you missed it, here’s a link about The Chapel…coming soon!!

Something I want you to know about:

My friend, Rev. Winnie Varghese has a new podcast with Rev. Azariah France-Williams on God and Race which is really lovely. I highly recommend listening to these beautiful, textured conversations about God and race between a queer Indian-American Episcopal priest with a Black British priest in the Church of England. Better yet: the first episode includes my sweet friend Broderick Greer (you may remember this image of us from a couple weeks ago).

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