2022-12-24 A Prayer: Forward For Now

O Lord, harrowing times: You know what it is like to feel like one has been put in the waste bin. You know the impassioned plea. You know that we draw near to those without hope in this world, with pain.

They live nearer to despondency, and we urge our own souls forward: ceasing to worry as to who one is reaching; ceasing to allow in the curt and all-encompassing summary of who we are; help us know fellowship and solar systems of meaning, in a world that others see as futile. At least, that they see as futile for us. See us excited in season, knowing Your birth was for all people.

We laud Your uncovered aspects, the secret hope You held out even as this world put You to the Cross. You hoped, and didn’t forget, that there was reason for all that transpired, for all that happened. So easy it becomes to be weighed down by the cynical judgments of others, yet You… Our “reality” is stark and a wish upon a star, a fleeting insight, an imagined constellation: You grant meaning; Lord, we do not need to run the show, only to serve in any capacity. We feel ourselves servant to much, and in this try to be inoffensive, but others see us without any imagination; they bring to the table a reality we shy from; their constellation of meaning is different from ours. We try to heal, and to recall words of blessing. We try not to play the blame game. We make much of the kind word of a family member or other seasonal duty towards each other in fellowship.

But they seem not to know the friendships and the quiet encampments. In their overarching view, all we do seems futile. So we pray simply for peace in that encampment, for seeing family and friends, for biding our time honorific of Your use of us and Your imaginative plans. See us eager to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and help us fight with prayer the naysayer and cynic. Help us when untold competition is imagined against us. Help us envision space to thrive and thank You for restoring to us the fruit of words carefully chosen, the success story even if we fail in our efforts to “fix” the brokenness. We need not fix anything, except to know You give each an experience that can bear fruit. Such was the reality You hurtled through, from Your hazarded birth on Christmas morn.

We pray all this in Your Name, Amen.