most hopeful
choosing to be most hopeful
Category Archives: Prayers
when there’s nothing to fight for
When there’s nothing to fight for
nothing to be enamored with
nothing to move into
nothing to be about
nothing to sing of
When we are bored
with the little tales
we tell ourselves
that’s when we fight against.
that’s when we tear down.
that’s when we go after.
that’s when we go under.
But…
There is enough to be fighting for
There is enough to be enamored with
There is enough to move into
There is enough to be about
There is enough to sing of
So when we find ourselves fighting against, tearing down, going after, going under
Give us a glimpse of the kingdom
and we shall sing again.
djordan
Pine Tree
the sum of our hoping
RELATED POSTS
On John 11
When There’s Nothing Else to Do
it all starts with good questions
I feel like I’ve been bombarded this week by people who see the world from completely different perspectives than I, but who share the same heart for justice and development and kingdom-living.
Incredibly encouraging.
The questions of whether or not we work toward and in light of and in hope of the kingdom come have grown tiring. Of course we do…it is what keeps us up at night and wakes us in the morning. The questions of whether we are in pursuit of the American Dream or in pursuit of a kingdom dream are old news. Boring. We press on for things on earth as in heaven, as we were taught.
So the joy comes in asking the good questions: what does this mean? What does it look like to practice medicine, business, design, landscaping, writing, teaching, mothering, fathering, gardening, skiing, listening, acting, singing…what does it look like to do all things in light of the kingdom.
How are our businesses different? How are our commitments different? How are our churches, our families, our finances, our career goals different?
How are the stories we tell, and the stories we crave different?
It has been an encouraging week, whether in the homeless shelter or the country club, imagining with others what it means to participate in God’s making all things new.
And it all starts with good questions
and good prayers.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our bread for the day,
and forgive us for the ways we have failed others
in the same way we forgive the ways others have failed us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, the glory
forever.
djordan
Pine Tree
on most days, a hard mix
We are among your called.
We have heard and answered your summons.
You have addressed us in the deep places of our lives.
In responsive obedience we testify,
as we are able, to your truth as it concerns our common life.
We thank you for the call,
for the burden of that call,
for the risk that goes with it,
for the joy of words given us by your growing spirit, and
for the newness that sometimes comes from our word.
We have indeed been in the counsel of your summoning spirit,
and so we know some truth to speak.
But we are, as well, filled with rich imagination of our own,
And our imagination is sometimes matched and overmatched
by our cowardice,
by our readiness to please,
by our quest for well-being.
We are, on most days, a hard mix
of true prophet and wayward voice,
a mix of your call to justice
and our hope for shalom.
Here we are, as we are,
mixed but faithful,
compromised but committed,
anxious but devoted to you.
Use us and our gifts for
your newness that pushed beyond all the we can say or imagine.
We are grateful for words given us;
We are more grateful for your word fleshed among us.
+ Brueggeman, from Prayers for a Privileged People
While this is pulled from one of my favorite books, referenced often here, I ran it across it this morning in a post from an organization one of my students just told me about in Colorado. As I looked up Purple Door Coffee, I noticed that Madison Chandler, a girl I used to go to school with is helping out. I hope you enjoy the prayer, Walter Brueggeman’s stuff, and learning more about Purple Door Coffee.
djordan
Pine Tree Dr.
Pine Tree Dr.
now we are homeward
Through this day we have named your name in gladness, we have pondered the world you have called “good,” we have relished your gift and your task, and we have marveled in amazement, yet one more time, at the wonder of this Easter Jesus, who has died and is alive among us.
Now we are homeward; And when we arrive there, it will be as it was this morning, with anxiety and demand and conflict and inconvenience. Except that all things will be–yet again–made new. Make new by your spirit; make new the church where we live; make new the public reality of justice among us; make new the practice of compassion in our neighborhood; make new the surge of peace in our violent world; make new the policies of our government and the workings of the church.
Make new, and we will be in Easter joy unafraid and unweary, your glad people, carrying among us the marks of the death and the new life of Jesus in whose name we pray.
+ W. Brueggeman, “Habitat of Newness and Goodness”
from Prayers for a Privileged People
when it’s too late | on john 11
It is just after the time when it’s too late.
Our prayers are guided this way. We pray leading up to the time when it is obviously too late. And then we explain why he didn’t show up. Why he didn’t answer.
When our prayers are answered the ways we ask, we give God thanks, and remember it as a way to explain that God indeed does answer prayers.
When our prayers are not answered the ways we ask, when they are not answered in time, we explain that God knows better. We talk about his soveriegnty, and our need to trust him.
We say things like, “Our ways are not God’s ways,” and, “We will know when we should know.”
And in many ways, we come up with explanations either to give God credit, or to let him off the hook.
We pray, and still families fall apart.
We pray, and still jobs are lost.
We pray, and still the famine continues.
We pray, and still we are abused.
We pray, and still we abuse.
We pray, and still the fire burns it all the way down.
We pray, and still the gunshots are fired.
We pray, and still the son is lost.
And so, we say, God knows best. Our ways are not his ways. We will know when we should know.
But not Martha. She is angry.
She had faith, and called him early. When he got sick, she sent for him to get there.
But he did not. He was too late. And she let him know, “If you had only been here.”
And this time, of course, he was not too late. In the ways that he is never too late. There is no too late. Time waits for him, and he does not need time to work in his favor.
And this time, the too late was just on time. When the stone gets pushed out of the way, he comes stumbling out wrapped up like a mummy.
And we talk of the sovereignty of God, Jesus’ power against death, his ways as being other than our ways.
And we are comforted, for a moment. The story helps us take a deep breath, and say to ourselves, it is never too late for him.
But still, we are sitting in the aftermath of
families that have fallen apart.
jobs that are still nowhere to be found.
famine that is murdering millions and millions.
abuse that does not stop.
abusing that cannot stop.
crumbles of chard homes, businesses, churches.
gunshot wounds and hospital noises.
gravestones of our sons and daughters.
And to say the he is never late feels poisonous escaping from our lips.
Martha says, “But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask him for.”
In some ways, this makes it worse because we are sitting in the murky puddles of loss and hopelessness.
In other ways, this makes it better because we know that we have seen you more than once defy time and loss and death.
Help us let this make it better.
And when it does not, and we cannot, call for us as you called for Mary, from our mourning…
djordan
Pine Tree Dr.
rosa parks | in remembering and in hoping
Rosa Parks | February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005
On thoughts of Black History Month
+ “Rosa Parks” from Walter Brueggeman’s Prayers for a Privileged People
djordan
Pine Tree
most hopeful 