2022-11-02 A Prayer: Flexing as Creatures

O Lord, long foretold, cross-purposes are vocal, and though mightily reassured we also are holy fools, strangely needy and in plain denial at times of the basic care, the simple presence, the deep assurance, You wish for us to operate from. So when we meet You, the first message is to see ourselves in a mirror. You became us in Christ. We long therefore simply to rest secure. We long simply to make much of the day of little things; so patient You are, in a delighted if not maddening reckoning today with what and who You are.

See us taught as though by that mirror image, that You knew, and You condescended, and You came down from heaven. If that isn’t reassurance of everything we do, and of the constellation in which we operate, then what is? So help us with simple enemies to this our estate. Help us avoid the brash or the glitzy, the celebrations that forget Lived Experience, that forget something strange and distinctly Christian, distinctly what all of us do profess and, in Christian Nation and World, do giddily long to ascend. We are giddy, so help us. We are today calmed and brilliantly weaned unto delight and peace and patience and much more.

We long to ascribe faith unto our deeds. We have friends who do this better than us, who are totally given over unto the Cause. So we begin to see each from the perspective of their own status as thoughtful and self-critical, even as proper egoist, if that makes sense. Each is given cause for joy and for self-confidence. And we, as the patiently observing, are blessed to have the cipher rounded out by these our peers. So truly is each person valuable, when we see no negotiation with whether we are “sinner” or “Saint”, but instead an unapologetic determination to love us.

In turn, help us simply to brave the day, to discern and whittle and part the ways before us all the more so when they fall under the banner of “Religious”: see that as our workplace and encounter with inimical spirits. But no matter, today we are the giving and those full with a boon called outgoing pleasantries and mutual upbuilding. See us certain that, if there is hope for anyone, it is in being treated from a posture of generosity, magnanimity, building each other up because You built us up.

We pray all this in Your Name, Amen.