1 December 2024 (Advent 1)

If you like, you can listen to Laura pray for your right here: https://www.cgpmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/December-1-2024.m4a

Please imagine, dear Pastor, dear Deacon, dear Chaplain, that this is God in conversation with you in this prayer today. Hear God speaking to you instead of you speaking to God:

Oh my love. Just pause for a moment, ok? And remember that it is you that I love. And that love is what goes with you into the fray of whatever awaits you today. No matter if you are feeling brave and faithful or afraid and ambivalent to it all, I will be with you. Even as you rush about doing the things that need to be done, I am with you. There is no amount of a packed schedule that I can’t fit into – I’m pretty good at finding the cracks and making the space. I’ll even find the space within your sermon, within the prayers you will pray on behalf of your people. I’ll find space within you as you speak to another one of my loves, but this one is kind of hard to love. I know it first-hand too. I will love them, even if you must fake it right now. Just look for me in the space between you, that might help. And then drink in the sheer possibility of all the ways I will show up for you today. Endless potential. Just as I have endless love for you and for the way you just are in the world. Even as you speak words today that talk about belief in me, always remember that I believe in you, too. It’s why I created you. And just look at you! I love you when you’ve got it all together and I love you when you’re falling apart. I know what you’re made of and sometimes I know it’s quite difficult for you especially when the world is so, well, things are messy aren’t they? They’ve always been that way, and I continue to be in it with you. I know it can be hard to wade through it all – this liminal space is something, isn’t it? The now and not yet!? So let’s just lean into the now for now, ok?

These loves in your life? The ones who are closest and most dear to you? They are most dear ot me too. I love them, too. So do you best to love each other well today. And if you don’t, there is nothing I can’t do with just a word. You’re been practicing loving each other so well, just keep doing that. And I’ll show up. I’ll love you all through it. I’ll be with you in the mess of it, in the sheer beatify of it. In the gift of it.

Oh, and love? All those others who are pastoring or deaconing or chaplaining along with you? What a beautiful lot, all of you. Keep digging into that deep well of a heart of yours to love each other. Because there is nothing lonelier than feeling like no one else gets you. I created a whole mess of you. And I am with each of you.

Do take a deep, deep breath, my dear love. And know that your love for me is not in vain. So don’t be afraid, I am with you.