Larry Piper's Slothoughts

Musings of a guy in the choir

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 Prayer for Thursday, June 16, 2011