Prayer for the Month of July, 2011 · 28 July 2011

Hi God,

Almost every morning this month,
as the dogs and I investigated the neighborhood,
I’ve looked up at the blue sky,
peeping through the green leaves,
and thought to myself
how sublime it all is,
and moreover,
immediately I should compose a prayer,
before I faced the reality of the day,
the reality that those “leaders” of ours—
those folks St. Paul said
You ordained to exercise authority over us—
are leading us like lambs to slaughter,
only for their own personal profit,
and for no remote benefit to their flock.

…But that never seems to happen….

So, I guess the best I can do
is repeat to myself
… over . and . over …
this prayer, based on Ps. 57:

“Be merciful unto us, Oh God;
be merciful unto us,
for we trust in You.
Yea, in the shadow of Your wings
will we take our refuge
until these calamities pass by.
Let us cry unto God,
unto God most high
who orders all things for us.
God will send from heaven
and will save us from the shaming jeers
of those who seek to destroy us.
Yea, God will send forth mercy and truth.”

I pray it can be so.
    Amen

Scriptural References
Rom. 13:1-7
Ps. 57:1-3

— lgpiper

Comment

Prayer for Friday, July 8, 2011—but really for Saturday, July 9 · 9 July 2011

Hi God,

Jesus is reported to have said,
“For where two or three have
gathered together in My name,
I am there in their midst.”
I’m thinking that
“gathered together in My name”
might mean gathered to do Your work,
i.e. to serve You:
“to seek justice and love kindness,
and walk humbly with You”.
That kind of stuff.

So what about
a lone geezer and a dog?
Would You (he) deign
still to be there with them,
if they thought they were
going about the work of
spreading the Kingdom of Heaven—
but it was just a geezer and an old dog—
not two or three real people?

Sometimes it doesn’t feel so,
though, I must admit that
it did feel divine this afternoon
to spend a few hours
on the deck with Brewster
(and I thank You for that blessing).
So that works for the
“walk humbly with your God” part.
But, I’m not sure it helps much with the
“…seek justice and love kindness” part,
the morning’s agenda.
Somehow, I think
we’d all of us be more apt
to work to seek justice,
and also to love kindness,
if we actually could feel that
You were there with us
to feel your presence in our lives.

So that’s my prayer today,
that You help us
to feel Your presence in our lives,
and that this feeling of presence
will then indeed help us
“to seek justice and love kindness”
(and also learn to be humble).
I also ask that You, please,
have mercy on my soul,
    lacking-in-justice,
    lacking-in-kindness,
    lacking-in-humbleness
sinner though I be.

Amen

scriptural references
Matt. 18:20
Micah 6:8

— lgpiper

Comment

Prayer for Thursday, June 16, 2011 · 16 June 2011

Hi God,

A bunny visited my back yard this afternoon.
I didn’t figure my yard
as being particularly hospitable—
rather barren and weedy, actually—,
but apparently the bunny
thought differently.
The bunny, it seemed,
thought some of my weeds
to be particularly tasty,
and the fenced yard, safe.

I think, perhaps,
there is a lesson here:
that we can be hospitable
even when we’re not trying,
even when we’re not
feeling much inclination.

My prayer today is to ask for help
with becoming more hospitable,
becoming more aware of opportunities,
becoming more inclined to make an effort.
In one way, at least,
becoming more like Brewster,
who never misses an opportunity
to offer extravagant hospitality
in the ways available to him.

I also ask you, please,
to have mercy on my soul
inhospitable sinner though I be.

Amen

— lgpiper

Comment

Prayer for Wednesday, June 8, 2011 · 9 June 2011

Hi God,

This morning, we saw two huge turtles
digging in the dirt beside the sidewalk,
hoping to make nests for their eggs.
I could hardly imagine a worse place
to start a family than by the football field,
along the road frequented daily
by parents and teenagers driving to school.
The turtles, in would seem, think differently,
having high hopes for their creative endeavors.

Whereas, I would see the turtles as being
exiled from their natural habitats,
and might think, therefore,
that the turtles should just give up,
the turtles, it would seem,
have heeded the prophet Jeremiah’s injunction
to those exiled from the house of Judah,

“Build houses and settle down;
plant gardens and eat what they produce.
Marry and have sons and daughters;
find wives for your sons and
give your daughters in marriage,
so that they too may have sons and daughters.
Increase in number there; do not decrease.
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city
to which I have carried you into exile.
Pray to the LORD for it,
because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

The turtles, in other words,
choose not to give up,
but to carry on the business of being turtles,
to prosper, if possible,
in the place they find themselves.

Often, I feel like I’m living in exile,
the alien people around me
seem to be living in a fantasy world,
one in which I find little sense,
a world either devoid from reality,
or one in which the realty is overly harsh.
My prayer today is that
You help me be like the turtles,
living in hope in the place I find myself,
hoping to prosper in that place,
and thereby helping that place to prosper.

I also ask You, please,
to have mercy on my soul,
less-than-hopeful sinner though I be.

Amen

Scriptural Reference
Jeremiah 29: 5-7

— lgpiper

Comment

Prayer for Friday, June 3, 2011...some 4 or 5 days late · 7 June 2011

Hi God,

I’m still lagging here.
We could blame it on Spring Fever
except it’s gotten warm.
I suppose in the last few billion years
that You’ve “heard them all”, huh?

So, in “count your blessings” mode,
I’m grateful that I am not
living as a nineteenth century Russian peasant.
It’s easy to manufacture complaints,
leaking car gas tank, dead microwave,
but, even with those travails,
our lives are pretty cushy
compared to folks described by
Chekhov and Dostoyevsky.

Then too, as James Russell Lowell pointed out,
“What’s so rare as a day in June?”
We surely have one of those rare days,
a day for lying on the deck with Brewster,
looking up at the blue sky
through the overarching, green leaves,
albeit lacy from caterpillar feasting.

I appreciate Your reminding me,
from time to time,
to “count my many blessings”,
even if sometimes they be
most prominently obvious
from the lack of the desperation
experienced by others
or from personal idleness.

I also ask you, please,
to have mercy on my soul,
self-absorbed sinner though I be.

Amen

— lgpiper

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