Sunday Am Prayer 30 June 2024

Sunday Prayer for the Chaplain + Deacon + Pastor

Dear God,

I wait for you. I know you are there. Here. WIth me. I know this. And yet, the waiting. There is so much waiting in my life, in ministry. For the resolution of things. For the people to simmer down. For the diagnosis. For the discernment to become clearer. For the meeting and the next meeting and how about another meeting? And yet. I also get to walk with you into the depths of mystery and unknowing, all the while clinging to your promises. Of wholeness. Of new life. Of everlasting life. Your promise of love and grace and mercy and and and and… It’s all so much. Wow. Just wow. Thank you. Thank you for sustaining me in the waiting. And the whining. In my doubt, as I’m sure I know what healing and wholeness and new life looks like. And then when it doesn’t look like the way I envisioned it, well then what? It can be so hard sometimes, clinging to faith and trusting in your mercy. Your vision and your reality are so much better than my own. Even my best imagination or prayer or vision of what should be.

So help me to wait for the morning. Or the evening. Or the next moment. Or tomorrow. And remind me that all I encounter today – the beloved ones, the ones who try my patience – they are your beloved. So show me how to love them and be patient with me when I screw it up. I know you wait for me even as I complain about waiting for you. Huh. Thanks for not giving up on me.

And help me especially to love those nearest and dearest to me. Help me not take out my anxiety and doubt on them. My impatience. Give me pause so I won’t react. Help me instead to respond well. WIth hints of your love.

Take a deep breath, dear deacon, dear pastor, dear chaplain. For your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Don’t be afraid. God is with you.