Category Archives: Prayers

Apr 08 2013
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learning to live, poems, Prayers, social work, what they are teaching me

chaos and the work of God

01

We are not shy
to raise our hands
and call out your name
to give you thanks for
clear skies,
crystal streams,
chirping birds,
brilliant sunsets,
healthy babies and
happy homes.

We speak of being blessed
and assume that blessings speak to
a void of chaos and a presence calm.

Until we find ourselves
in those terribly difficult moments
conversations
circles
conference rooms
church pews
waiting rooms
court benches
living room couches

until we find ourselves mired down
in the chaos of things
we deeply want but don’t understand
and don’t even know what the next step is

and yet in our fumbling and
in our stumbling to
do justice and
love mercy
and walk humbly,
we suddenly fumble and stumble into
the very face and hands of God.

an apology
a clarity
an honest word
a clear question
a hopeful request
a brave idea
a brilliant imagination

and we see in our willingness to sit together
pray together
break bread together

that God is not absent in
the unknown moments of chaos,
but rather he is present in a very
hair-raising kind of presence.

and so we give thanks
both for the chaos,
and for the work of God in its midst.

djordan
Pine Tree Dr.

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Feb 21 2013
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grief and trauma, learning to live, Prayers, Quotes

minding the gap

mind-the-gap

We confess, O God, that we like to see things solved.
We confess, O God, that we bear your name and insist on solving.

We admit, O God, that we are called to be the ones who tell the truth
of all the mess and pain and brokenness in the world
on this side of kingdom come.
We admit, O God, that we are called to be the ones who tell the truth
of all the redemption and justice and beauty already in the world now
and fully in the world on the other side of kingdom come.
We ask, O God, that you would give us the courage to tell the truth
and to be the people who stand in the middle of the tragic gap
knowing that while the world does not go well,
kingdom is in our midst, and kingdom comes.
We ask, O God, that you would make us brave enough to stand
unsolved, unfixed, in the middle of the brokenness and the beauty
honestly declaring both.
Amen.

djordan
Pine Tree Dr.

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Jan 10 2013
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Prayers, the calendar

rainy thursday afternoons

rainy-day-window

God of Thursday afternoons
of rainy days
and dreary skies
when we  try our best to be excited about the work
but may find ourselves struggling
to keep our eyes open.

Give us eyes to see
and ears to hear
and minds to understand
all that you are doing in the world.

Even on rainy Thursday afternoons.

Amen.

 

djordan
108 S Church

 

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Jan 02 2013
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on, Prayers, the calendar

cheers to the 2nd of January

Screen Shot 2013-01-02 at 7.46.40 PM

the 1st is easy enough
to be big
to be bold
to be daring
to be hopeful enough about the future
to set big goals
to make big promises;

we reflect on a year that has passed and
choose what we hope will be better
or more
or truer
or braver in the year to come.

But most days of our lives
happen on the 2nd
the day after we make
big decisions
bold promises
daring declarations
hopeful comments about the future
big goals for the days and weeks ahead
big promises for the future that waits ahead.

And so we ask that
the prayers and hopes and energies of our 1sts
become the fuel of our 2nds.
And that we hold out hope,
and join with others who do the same for us.

Happy January 2nd.

djordan
Pine Tree

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Dec 22 2012
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grief and trauma, on, poems, Prayers, Quotes, the calendar

on advent | before we sing the song of Christmas

Screen Shot 2012-12-22 at 9.06.20 AM

My house is actually clean because I threw a party here a week ago.
The Christmas tree has stopped shorting out with the help of an extra extension cord.
All the gifts are in and waiting to be wrapped.
Money is in the bank, and a job waits for me when I return from the holidays.
Evenings and meals with candlelight and laughter are planned nightly for the next week.
There is plenty to be joyful for in the days approaching Christmas for me.

But couples wrestle with miscarriage.
Clients wrestle with families falling apart.
Participants wrestle with utilities being shut off.
Loved ones wrestle with pressing in depression and hopelessness.
Men wrestle with finding a bridge under which to put a pillow for the night.
Strangers wrestle with missing six-year-olds for Christmas morning.
Friends wrestle with the murdered son, husband, wife, daughter.
There is plenty to be broken-hearted for in the days approaching Christmas for me and others.

Enter the truth of advent.

Beyond flashy Christmas programs and shiny Christmas cards
taken twenty times until we liked the way our chins looked,
Beyond rhetoric over guns and entitlement and taxes and “wars on Christmas,”
sits a spinning world that while some goes well,
much goes not well.

Enter the truth of advent.

Skipped for Christmas morning by many churches and Christians
following in line behind consumers and the mighty dollar,
Advent waits in the dark nights before Christmas morning
telling the truth
allowing the tears
holding out hope
that while the world goes not well
the kingdom comes.

And when advent is allowed to enter
and linger under candlelight,
the words of the old hymn make a little more sense,
and make Christmas morning a little more important,
because we were allowed to wait for Christmas.

O ye beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace, their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Until the new heaven and earth own their King,
May we tell ourselves the truth of Advent
before we sing the song of Christmas.

Amen.

djordan
Pine Tree

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Oct 15 2012
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poems, Prayers

the tension in us

The hardest place that’s worth sticking it out in must be the place of tension.

In the times where we know we must move, but we don’t know how or where or in which direction, the tension burns and builds something new in us.

In the places where we want to do it the right way, with the right intentions, at the right speed and with the right understanding, but we feel the pressure to burst into action because it feels that lives are on the line otherwise, the tension tightens and turns something brave in us.

In the moments where we feel it’s everything we can do to hold back all the yearning and the wishing and the hoping and the praying to keep from cracking open in the most important and tenuous seconds, the tension gags and groans something wise in us.

And so we pray in those times and places and moments when the tension is burning and building, tightening and turning, gagging and groaning in us, that you will give us the steadfastness to stick it out so we can see the fruit of something new in us, something brave in us, and something wise in us.

Amen.

djordan
Pine Tree

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Sep 23 2012
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learning to live, poems, Prayers

from a long line of rule-breakers


History is marked by those pushing
into uncharted waters
unexamined worlds
and mostly unacceptable arenas
where people who were not to be
allowed
accepted
approved or
appreciated

were asked to
contribute
comprehend
compose and
conspire

against the ways that things are
and toward the way that things should be

in the kingdom
in the beloved community
in the new ecology
of a world and
of a community where
rich and poor
sick and well
like and unlike
loud and quiet
important and ignored

sit together
eat together
serve together
weep together
laugh together
learn together
give together
sing together and
hope together.

And while we are still so far behind
we have moved so far ahead
of where we have been

and only a few moments of remembering
will give us the wisdom and the humility
to pray to God–our only hope–that we will keep moving forward
faster and surer than the ways we are pulled to move backward

and we will remember
in our trepidation and
in our eagerness for
things to stay the same

that we are descendants of a long line
of rule-breakers
of peace-makers
of hope-holders and
of kingdom-bringers.

And now is not the time for stillness.

Amen.

djordan
Pine Tree

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Sep 08 2012
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learning to live, poems, Prayers

give us courage.

djordan
Pine Tree

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Sep 04 2012
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learning to live, Prayers, Quotes, what they are teaching me

on psalm 72

Give the King your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the King’s Son;

That he may rule your people righteously
and the poor with justice

That the mountains may bring prosperity to the people,
and the little hills bring righteousness.

He shall defend the needy among the people;
he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.

He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure,
from one generation to another.

He shall come down like rain upon the cut grass, 
like showers that water the earth.

In his time shall the righteous flourish;
there shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more. 

He shall rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth. 

+Psalm 72

We ask for the courage to speak into justice for the poor,
and freedom for the oppressed.
We ask for humility to know that as we speak into these requests,
we speak out against ourselves.
We ask for the imagination necessary to hold us until
we see you covering all the earth like the morning sun and dew.
We ask for the patience to know that as we join you now
still we wait until it is your time.

Give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
And give us courage to speak and work as we wait.

Amen.

djordan
Pine Tree

 

Relate Posts | Monday mornings | Some days we open our eyes | Half ready, half afraid

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Sep 03 2012
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Prayers

although we intend justice, mercy and humility

 

we intend to do justice
but we find ourselves surprised by what it involves
and so our feet shake a little when our toe begins to touch the water

we intend to love mercy
but in our eagerness to do justice we catch a glimpse of our own hate toward the other
and we temper down our justice because
we don’t know how to both do justice and love mercy at the same time

we intend to walk humbly
but as we barrel on toward doing justice we grow proud
and as we tip-toe up to loving mercy we grow soft
and we end up missing the mix of meekness altogether

but we know that what you’ve called us to is simple
and it is clear
and so we ask on the eve of difficult days and trying things
to give us the willingness to let you in,
so that you can, through us,

do justice, love mercy, so we can walk humbly with you, O God.

amen.

djordan
Pine Tree

 

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