I often feel like this, Nadia, that I can't seem to pray. Then I am glad and grateful for the community of prayer, like this one. Common prayer does not mean ordinary; it means in common, when I cannot do it myself.
My prayers this morning ...thank God for the corners. For the community where respectful struggle with theology is ok. Where being human, longing for heaven on earth experiencing the gamut of emotions is ok. Where the state of bring in want & need is ok. Where those with abundance & generosity share the bounty. I thank God that this and so much more has been fostered and nurtured by our cyberspace pastor, Nadia. I thank you for her wisdom and bravery in sharing the struggle, guiding and protecting us. I thank God for all who come to the corners to encourage and to be encouraged.
I woke up at 223am with an amazing dread about what's going on here in our US government. I couldn't find words to pray either. Trying ever so hard to stop thinking about the stupidity and selfishness and egotism. Lord in your mercy.
God where are you? Why do you feel so far away? As people do horrible things to each other and our country in God’s name, I cry. I curse. I ache and long for a better day.
Three Bible verses have helped me through life.
1. A psalm about as a deer pants for water..so my soul longs for God. My soul is thirsty.
2. The verse mentioned today ...Be still and know I am God. Maybe the fear keeps me from the stillness ..but it is harder and harder to know you are God. I will meditate on the great I AM- unlimited by a name and ever-present...help me be more I am - not I was and not I will be
3. And the last verse-a paraphrase from Micah, What does God require -DO justice, LOVE mercy, BE humble... Help me oh God cause my anger and fear are getting in the way of all of these
So in my lack of faith..i hold on through the ritual of prayer. God have mercy.
It's from a "joke" on FB, little girl is beside her bed reciting the alphabet. Dad come in and asks what she'd doing. Her response: I can't think of what pray for so I'm saying the alphabet, I figure God can put them into the tight words. Been reciting (by the grace of god, not singing although she might appreciate that) the alphabet a lot recently.
My advent stuff this year kept sending me back to John 14:27, about His peace & it not being like what the world gives as peace (like a new year like a new president like all sorts of broken promises ) so I am gonna try to take His peace and run with it
Thank you Nadia for sharing your truth and honesty. I have hit many times I could not pray and just cried. I had a Moment in despair that I heard your Tears are Prayers The Mother hears and understands. I shared this with my Dear Friend and she wrote a song from it. I would love to share it with you.
I found you through Science of Mind. Thank goodness. You appeared with perfect timing. Today's prayer seems like you were in the same place I was. My sweet mama is dying. A part of me is too. Thank you for being you and sharing yourself with all of us. Your message lightens my darkness today.
Even after worship with my people, I needed this today. Sometimes I struggle to make sense of the emotions, the chaos, the longing that is screaming to be met. God, are you paying attention? Just a nudge will do. The world is not ok and the church is not really ok even though we are trying to be present. I know we will make it, I will make it, but sometimes I just want to know living in the tension of theses days will reveal the beauty of grace and mercy and peace.
Even when the words won’t come; there is a way! When your mind swirls with so much and the swirling is the thing. Grace upon grace is where it points me.
I just wrote a poem about this--about how prayer is like asking Santa Claus for a pony when I've been SO good and followed all the rules (as if I have) and never getting a pony.
Everytime i think of psalm 46:10, i also think of Willie Nelson singing "still is still moving to me." Mystery and paradox; what did Churchill say- a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma? A lectio Divina group i participate in read Nativity by Li-Young Lee this week; What is the world?, The young boy asks in the poem. For me, the poet expresses this idea of still hope, as well.
Nativity
By Li-Young Lee
In the dark, a child might ask, What is the world?
I often feel like this, Nadia, that I can't seem to pray. Then I am glad and grateful for the community of prayer, like this one. Common prayer does not mean ordinary; it means in common, when I cannot do it myself.
My prayers this morning ...thank God for the corners. For the community where respectful struggle with theology is ok. Where being human, longing for heaven on earth experiencing the gamut of emotions is ok. Where the state of bring in want & need is ok. Where those with abundance & generosity share the bounty. I thank God that this and so much more has been fostered and nurtured by our cyberspace pastor, Nadia. I thank you for her wisdom and bravery in sharing the struggle, guiding and protecting us. I thank God for all who come to the corners to encourage and to be encouraged.
I woke up at 223am with an amazing dread about what's going on here in our US government. I couldn't find words to pray either. Trying ever so hard to stop thinking about the stupidity and selfishness and egotism. Lord in your mercy.
I often resort to just saying as my prayer what amounts to gibberish.
God speaks gibberish
I agree! I seem not to know precisely what my prayer should be but God seems to know exactly.
My prayers part two
God where are you? Why do you feel so far away? As people do horrible things to each other and our country in God’s name, I cry. I curse. I ache and long for a better day.
Three Bible verses have helped me through life.
1. A psalm about as a deer pants for water..so my soul longs for God. My soul is thirsty.
2. The verse mentioned today ...Be still and know I am God. Maybe the fear keeps me from the stillness ..but it is harder and harder to know you are God. I will meditate on the great I AM- unlimited by a name and ever-present...help me be more I am - not I was and not I will be
3. And the last verse-a paraphrase from Micah, What does God require -DO justice, LOVE mercy, BE humble... Help me oh God cause my anger and fear are getting in the way of all of these
So in my lack of faith..i hold on through the ritual of prayer. God have mercy.
a lightbulb clicked on your verse #1, dug up this nice tune to share hiding deep in an obscure playlist of mine; .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwLOBVyANdw
Longing for spring, or a waterfall in winter.
Thank you! Such beautiful refreshment for my thirsty soul.
It's from a "joke" on FB, little girl is beside her bed reciting the alphabet. Dad come in and asks what she'd doing. Her response: I can't think of what pray for so I'm saying the alphabet, I figure God can put them into the tight words. Been reciting (by the grace of god, not singing although she might appreciate that) the alphabet a lot recently.
My advent stuff this year kept sending me back to John 14:27, about His peace & it not being like what the world gives as peace (like a new year like a new president like all sorts of broken promises ) so I am gonna try to take His peace and run with it
Thank you Nadia for sharing your truth and honesty. I have hit many times I could not pray and just cried. I had a Moment in despair that I heard your Tears are Prayers The Mother hears and understands. I shared this with my Dear Friend and she wrote a song from it. I would love to share it with you.
I found you through Science of Mind. Thank goodness. You appeared with perfect timing. Today's prayer seems like you were in the same place I was. My sweet mama is dying. A part of me is too. Thank you for being you and sharing yourself with all of us. Your message lightens my darkness today.
Sending a prayer into the holy ether that you and your mama will feel God’s peace. ❤️🙏🏻
Oh God listen not to our words but to our prayer.
Even after worship with my people, I needed this today. Sometimes I struggle to make sense of the emotions, the chaos, the longing that is screaming to be met. God, are you paying attention? Just a nudge will do. The world is not ok and the church is not really ok even though we are trying to be present. I know we will make it, I will make it, but sometimes I just want to know living in the tension of theses days will reveal the beauty of grace and mercy and peace.
Even when the words won’t come; there is a way! When your mind swirls with so much and the swirling is the thing. Grace upon grace is where it points me.
I just wrote a poem about this--about how prayer is like asking Santa Claus for a pony when I've been SO good and followed all the rules (as if I have) and never getting a pony.
Post it (your poem)
Okay. Here it is:
DISAPPOINTMENT
You were good all year.
You kept the rules, even
the ones you made up:
Always say “please’ to the dog.
Don’t eat chocolate on Tuesdays.
You’ve learned all the magic words:
not only please and thank you kindly,
Hocus Pocus and Abracadabra,
but the secret ones, the ones
you’d never dare write down.
You know the gestures:
The morning bows
the evening pirouettes
and everything else
in between.
You believe there are enough
ponies to go around,
and more. They tell you that
all the time. Abundance,
they tell you.
So every year, you write
the letter, asking.
It’s all you want,
you say. You’re not
greedy. And you’ve made
space—a little barn,
a fenced-in pasture.
You can afford grain and hay
and apples and sugar
and vet bills.
But every year,
when you wake
on that morning
and look outside
there is no pony.
Only the sun rising.
Only your breath
clouding the window.
Only your beating heart.
Only the trees against the snow.
Yeah, very good,, thanks.
Growing up, Santa did seem to disappoint often, but i also hear in there the reminder from the (scripture influenced?)
1969 Rolling Stones lyric that sez you can't always get what you want, you get what you need.
Thanks for sharing
I love the prayer and share your struggles. God give us patience with the same abundance that God gives us grace!
Everytime i think of psalm 46:10, i also think of Willie Nelson singing "still is still moving to me." Mystery and paradox; what did Churchill say- a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma? A lectio Divina group i participate in read Nativity by Li-Young Lee this week; What is the world?, The young boy asks in the poem. For me, the poet expresses this idea of still hope, as well.
Nativity
By Li-Young Lee
In the dark, a child might ask, What is the world?
just to hear his sister
promise, An unfinished wing of heaven,
just to hear his brother say,
A house inside a house,
but most of all to hear his mother answer,
One more song, then you go to sleep.
How could anyone in that bed guess
the question finds its beginning
in the answer long growing
inside the one who asked, that restless boy,
the night’s darling?
Later, a man lying awake,
he might ask it again,
just to hear the silence
charge him, This night
arching over your sleepless wondering,
this night, the near ground
every reaching-out-to overreaches,
just to remind himself
out of what little earth and duration,
out of what immense good-bye,
each must make a safe place of his heart,
before so strange and wild a guest
as God approaches.
thank you for your honesty