Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Bonus Time

Lord God,

May this “extra” day and this “bonus” time remind us of what a great gift all of our days are and all of our time is.

Lead us to use some of today’s bonus time to serve you and to help someone that we might learn again the lesson of how we can best use all of our time, no matter what else we spend our time doing.

Thank you for all of our days and for all of our time.

Amen.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Cost

Show us today, O Lord, that whatever it costs us to be true to who you are forming us to be, to who you are willing us to be, and to who Jesus Christ lived and died that we might be,

it will cost us far more to be somebody else.

Amen.

Monday, February 27, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, February 27, 2012

Inside/Outside

Today we will become aware of
so much inside of us that wants to get out and
so much outside of us that wants to get in.

Grant us discernment that we will know
what inside of us needs to be kept
and what needs to be shared;

grant us discernment that we will know
what outside of us needs to be kept out
and what needs to be let in.

Amen.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, February 26, 2012

The Lord's Day

O God,

On this Lord’s Day, may we worship you as the first and the last, as the beginning and the end, and as the source and the goal of all that is, of all that we are, of all that we are becoming, and of all that we will be.

Amen.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, February 25, 2012

Beauty

Draw us today, Lord God, to the beauty of your love.

May we marvel at it, embrace it, be enveloped by it, and be permeated by it.

May the beauty of your love be the filter through which we experience everything, the lens through which we see everything, and the guide by which we act in everything.

Draw us today, Lord God, to the beauty of your love.

Amen.

Friday, February 24, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, February 24, 2012

Progress

When this day is over, dear Lord, may we look back over it and be able to see how we made, with the help of your Spirit, a little progress…

…in loving,
…in forgiving,
…in trusting,
…in caring, and
…in sharing.

Amen.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, February 23, 2012

“Marked”

O Lord, how can we live today as people who are marked

with ashes?
with love?
with mercy?
with grace?
with faith?
with hope?
with the Cross?

Show us the way to live as marked people and help us to walk in it.

Amen.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Dust

We acknowledge today that we are dust and that to dust we will return, O God.

Keep us ever mindful of our mortality so that we will live each moment to its fullest and so that we will at the same time not overestimate our importance.

And yet...what are we that you are mindful of us and that when you are mindful of us you care for us? What are we that you love us?

Keep us mindful of your love for us that is seen in so many ways but most clearly in the life, death, and resurrection of your Son Jesus, who became dust for our sake that we might know the true enlivening of the dust that we are.

We are dust and to dust we will return--thanks be to God.

We are yours and to you we will return--thanks be to God.

Amen.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Ways & Means

Thank you, O God, for the ways and means to put ourselves in a position to become better aware of your grace that you in your grace make available to us.

Thank you, O God,

for worship,
for prayer,
for Bible reading,
for fasting,
for solitude,
for community,
for silence, and
for people.

Lead us to take advantage of the ways and means of knowing you better that you in your grace have given us.

Amen.

Monday, February 20, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, February 20, 2012

Possibilities

O God,

A new week, filled with possibilities, lies before us.

We have good reason, based on past experience, to be both excited and nervous about walking into the unknown of this week, given that it may well be a critical week, a week that changes everything either because of some great gain or because of some great loss.

It could be, on the other hand, one of those weeks where it seems like everything is routine and nothing much changes—although much will change, whether we notice and acknowledge it or not.

So, O God, protect us from our fear of the unknown; fill us instead with faith in the face of the unknown.

So, O God, protect us from anxiety over the possibility of pain and loss; fill us instead with a sense of your presence in the face of potential or realized pain and loss.

So, O God, protect us from presumption over the possibility of gain and success; fill us instead with a sense of wonder and humility in the face of potential or realized gain and success.

A new week, filled with possibilities, lies before us.

Give us grace to live well in it.

Amen.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

A Prayer for Transfiguration Sunday, February 19, 2012

Lord God,

Cause the light of your great glory that we see in the face of your Son Jesus Christ to shine into our hearts today so that we can and will reflect it into the darkness that so often shrouds the lives of the people we encounter.

Amen.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, February 18, 2012

Trust

Help us to grow in our trust in you, O Lord, so that we will take time to rest and to play and to let it all go, knowing that it is all ultimately in your hands.

Help us to grow in our trust in you, O Lord, so that we will take our work seriously but not too seriously, knowing that it is all ultimately in your hands.

Help us to grow in our trust in you, O Lord, so that we will act as change agents in the world with patience and hope, knowing that it is all ultimately in your hands.

Amen.

Friday, February 17, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, February 17, 2012

Something Sacred

“Something sacred is at stake in every event.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man)

Make and keep us aware today of that great truth, O God; remind us that you created it all and that you created us all and that you care more deeply than we could ever imagine about it all and about us all.

Therefore, you are present and active in every event.

You are there.

Make and keep us aware, O God…

Amen.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Way

When we live in a culture that

expects dishonesty,
celebrates celebrity,
promotes selfishness,
trusts wealth, and
glorifies greed

while we follow the Way that

fosters integrity,
honors modesty,
develops selflessness,
embraces poverty, and
practices generosity…

we need, O God, in every second of our lives,

attentiveness,
encouragement,
determination,
centeredness, and
grace.

Thank you, O God, for the gifts that enable us to live as who we are and to walk in your Way for us are even as we are pulled and pushed to be other than who we are and to follow a different way.

Amen.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Today

Lord God,

Thank you for this day that we have never had before; thank you for the mystery and the wonder of what lies ahead of us today.

Help us gladly to receive today as the precious and gracious gift that it is; help us to handle it with care even as we embrace it with enthusiasm.

When today is over, may we be able to look back over it knowing that we received it rather than resisted it, that we lived it rather than lost it, that we experienced it rather than avoided it.

Amen.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Dawn

Every morning the rising sun drives away the darkness and illuminates the sky with the hopeful colors of pink and blue, colors that remind us of new life and of second chances.

Thank you, O God, for raising us up again today and for giving us yet another chance.

May your Son Jesus, who is the Light of the World, drive away our darkness and lead us all day long from death into life.

May our lives all day long be tinted with his pinks and blues.

Amen.

Monday, February 13, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, February 13, 2012

Horizon

The horizon is the point at which, when we look as far off as we can see, it appears that the sky kisses the ground, that heaven touches the earth.

As we enter this new week, O God, cause us to be aware, even as we gaze far off, trying to plan for and to anticipate the events of the week, that

every moment,
every occurrence,
every encounter,
every conversation,
every crisis,
every accomplishment,

and even

every failure,

are horizon moments, are moments where heaven touches the earth.

Cause us to be aware, O God, that you are present in it all.

Amen.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Lord’s Day

O God,

Through the words spoken and sung in our corporate worship today, may we encounter the living Word who is our Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, February 11, 2012

Peacemakers

O Lord,

In this time when division, contention, narrow-mindedness, self-centeredness, suspicion, bias, demagoguery, dishonesty, shallowness, misunderstanding, presumption, incivility, meanness, pride, fear, and arrogance characterize so many of our relationships and so much of our dialogue and debate…

make us instruments of your peace.

Amen.

Friday, February 10, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, February 10, 2012

“Hard to Know”

Sometimes, O God, it’s hard to know what we know in the sense that so often we don’t have all the facts or we don’t know how to interpret the facts or we don’t know if what we think are facts are in fact facts.

Lord, give us wisdom to know the difference between what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know.

Sometimes, O God, it’s hard to know what we know in the sense that the truths that we are convinced are truths are difficult to bear and difficult to live out in real life in the real world; we know—and it is hard to know—that the ways of Jesus that are supposed to be the ways of Christians come down to truths like love, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion.

Lord, give us the courage of our convictions to live out in real, practical, and consistent ways the truths that were embodied in Jesus Christ and that are, if we are the Body of Christ, embodied in us.

Amen.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, February 9, 2012

Hard to Believe

Sometimes it’s hard to believe, O God, in the sense that sometimes it’s difficult for us to let your gift of faith overcome our tendencies toward fear, toward doubt, and toward cynicism.

Lord we believe; help our unbelief.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe, O God, in the sense that sometimes it’s difficult for us to live out the faith that we do have in the face of our culture’s tendencies toward materialism, toward escapism, and toward individualism.

Lord we believe; help our unbelief.

Amen.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Choices

Who knows how many choices we will make today?

It must be in the hundreds if not the thousands; we will choose between pencil and pen, between coffee and tea, between yes and no, between this way and that way, between go and stay, between left and right, between a hurtful word and a helpful word—and so it will go, all day long, until we choose what time to go to bed.

We know and affirm, O God, that our choices matter, that whether we choose this or that impacts everything that will happen to us—and maybe to other people—afterward; help us to take our choices seriously—but with trust in you so that we will not obsess over the implications.

Give us faith to entrust every choice of our lives to you; give us confidence to choose boldly knowing that you are working your purposes out; give us grace to choose humbly since our choices don’t take effect in a vacuum but work in concert with many choices being made by many others.

Help us at the same time to use these marvelous brains that you have given us to make good, thoughtful choices and to use the ever-maturing faith that you give us to trust you to guide our way.

Amen.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Pioneers

For people who think outside the box, who sail uncharted waters, who boldly go where no one has gone before—and who pull the rest of us along kicking and screaming, we thank you, O God.

Please replace our kicking with walking and our screaming with thinking.

Amen.

Monday, February 6, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, February 6, 2012

Arrogance/Humility

We will live today, O God, in that place where our arrogance meets our humility; we will live simultaneously with the sense that it is all about us and with the conviction that it is all about them.

Help us to live creatively in that tension; help us to grow toward a healthy balance between self-interest and other-interest.

Help us to find and to know you in that real place where we live our real lives rather than to give in to a seeming inevitability or to an unattainable ideal.

Amen.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, February 5, 2012

“The Lord’s Day”

Show us, O Lord, whether our worship of you this day has been preceded during the past week by a faithful effort to practice love, mercy, and justice; remind us, O Lord, of the necessity that our worship of you this day be followed during this new week by a faithful effort to practice love, mercy, and justice.

Amen.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, February 4, 2012

“Woundedness”

While we cannot always know—nor should we always know—what wounds the people around us bear, we can be as sure that their wounds exist as we are that ours do.

Help us, therefore, O God, to reach out to those around us with the same understanding, love, grace, and mercy that we would like to receive from others and with the understanding, love, grace, and mercy that we have received from you.

Grant that our scars would not become hard and calloused but rather cause them to stay open enough to become conduits of compassion.

Amen.

Friday, February 3, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, February 3, 2012

“Knowledge & Action”

Give us courage, O God, to act on what we know.

Give us restraint, O God, not to act on what we don’t know.

Give us wisdom, O God, to know the difference.

Amen.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, February 2, 2012

“Coherence/Incoherence”

Today, O God, we will once again live our lives at that place where incoherence meets coherence.

That is, sometimes things will make sense and sometimes they won’t; sometimes the pieces will seem to fit together and sometimes they won’t; sometimes there will seem to be purpose to it all and sometimes there won’t— and we will have to live with and in those tensions.

Give us grace and faith that we might live in those tensions creatively and courageously, knowing that you are in them.

Amen.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, February 1, 2012

“At Least”

Lord,

If we can’t be right,
if we can’t be helpful,
if we can’t be good…

help us at least to be kind.

Amen.