December 8, 2024 Sunday AM Pastor+Deacon+Chaplain

If you like, you can listen to Pastor Laura Aase pray for you right here.

Prepare my heart today, O God. God who promises that waiting is worth it, even though nobody wants to wait for anything. We’re so quick to jump to Christmas, and I am too. And my heart gets judgy about my people putting up trees and baby Jesus is everywhere! So prepare my heart to love today, God, because that’s what it’s all about. Your love is for me. And you call me to tell others, to even prepare a way. The way before me today. But for right now, I ask you God to prepare me. Take away all the barriers I unknowingly or purposefully set up to get in my own way of your love for me. Fill up all the potholes and shake loose the crooked places so I won’t find a way to hide or get lost. It’s so easy to twist your love into some kind of unrecognizable thing that I have to earn or deserve. Ugh. It’s just for me, ready or not.

Today I pray for my lovelies – be they plants or pets or kids or a spouse or a sibling or a parent. Prepare my heart to love them like you do. Let’s not get into the potholes here, God. Your mercy is unbound. Your grace ready at the first sound of my declarations of “my way or the highway!” or “I can do it myself.”

I pray for my colleagues – especially those who are itchy and ready for a new thing. Prepare their hearts to be loved. And remind them – and remind me – that we are not alone. I am not alone. You are with me.

So even if I trip over the baby Jesus on the way to light the 2^nd Advent candle, well. It is a reminder of the ridiculous way you come into the world. For me. For everybody. Wow. Thank you, God. Amen.

Take a deep breath. As you inhale and exhale, may it feel like a blessing of your whole life, inside and out. And remember, the angels start to get real insistent this time of year about not being afraid. And they are insistent because they know that Because God is with you! Let that be the promise that lives in you today.