Please God…

This coming Sunday is one of those days when many worshipful elements come together: All Saint’s Day, communion, and the beginning of our stewardship reflections under the banner, “Make Love Your Aim.”

But many of us will gather on Sunday with a different event in mind: Tuesday’s election. We continue our prayers in and beyond our worship, and today I’ll share an additional one from colleague Steve Garnaas-Holmes. It provides a different perspective, perhaps, on what it means to bid something of God, leading us to a depth of love that “does indeed change things.”

While we’re on the subject, we could still use a few more sign-ups for Tuesday’s Election Day of prayer at the church. We’d love to have a team of two there throughout the day.

With prayers for deep and abiding love to, through, and beyond next Tuesday,

Pastor Jen

“Please, God...” By Steve Garnaas-Holmes

We plead for God to intervene,
even “just this once…”
But I don’t think that’s how God works:
the Holocaust would have been a good time to do so.
No, God doesn’t stop the tyrant,
or nudge the car on the icy road.
God is not a Big Guy with a magic finger
he deploys now and then (but not always).

God is the Love at the heart of all being,
as constant as gravity, infinitely attentive,
and can’t be more present or active than right now.

When we ask for God’s help,
what we mean is to align ourselves
with the great power of God’s grace already at work.
Like musicians in perfect tune,
we create harmonics, notes that sound
though none of us is producing them.
Our harmony with God creates an energy field
that does indeed change things.

In troubled times it takes great concentration
to align ourselves with grace instead of force,
with love instead of fear.
We begin by allowing ourselves to be loved,
along with all the rest of Creation,
and then we fall into that love,
and let that love flow through us into the world.

I think that’s what we mean when we pray,
“Please, God…