Sunday Prayer for the chaplain+deacon+pastor

Sunday Prayer for the Chaplain + Deacon + Pastor

God of love,

Love is what it’s all about. Your love. Thank you. And. And why doesn’t that seem like enough for me some days? That is has to look and feel different. I so often put silly qualifiers on your love, only certain of it if it looks and feels a certain kind of way. If I can check off a box or feel like it was something that accomplished a task somehow. Which might actually be the opposite of your love. But when I stop and take a deep breath. Or when I’m stopped in my tracks by your love that is unexpected and overwhelming and all encompassing, it just does me in. Oh. Yup, that’s it. Right there. Turns out your love is enough because at its core, it’s your very being. And that courses throughout all of the universe and through me. What a privilege to be counted along with the stars, the grains of sand, the flying sheep and the falling baby pastors who don’t know the words. Yes, we’re all swept up in this love and you point us toward each other and that’s when it gets real. That’s when we really see you, in the face and actions of another. And that is really something. You’re just so beautiful, God. Reflected in someone I struggle to love. Reflected in my dearest loves. Reflected in the stranger, the enemy, and reflected in me.

So please do help me to love those closest to me, in my inner circle. When I get all revved up for all the church/hospital things, I can get a little in my own way, so help me stop that. So I don’t step on my people but instead love them well, just like you showed us and told us. Thank you for not giving up on me, ever. When I get it wrong or when I get it just right – thank you for just sticking with me and never leaving me where you found me. I’m always discovering who you are making me to be. More like you. More like love. Thank you. Amen.

Take a deep breath, dear deacon, dear pastor, dear chaplain. For your labor in the Lord is not in vain.