I spent this Friday morning getting ready for Sunday morning. Little ironic considering so much of it has to do with being content with where you are today instead of thinking about things to come. How do you memorize a sermon 48 hours early when the sermon is supposed to be about being present in "The Now"?
One way is to keep a keen focus on prayer. I am grateful that my friend Scot posts daily prayers each day during this Lenten season from one of our favorite writers. I hope it speaks to you today. Today’s prayer is adapted from Henri Nouwen's, Show Me the Way (55-57):
Lord God,
I am learning the secret of being content
in more and more circumstances,
but that does not mean
that I am satisfied with the status quo.
I believe that I,
like all your sons and daughters everywhere,
have an essential role to play
in the realization of the new world to come,
in the realization of your will being done
on earth as it is heaven.
So I keep searching for your new earth
where there are no divisions between peoples,
for your new structure
that allows every person to warmly embrace
every other person,
and for your new life
in which there will be lasting unity and peace.
I structure and arrange my life accordingly.
I am irritated by self-content in myself
as well as in others
since I know,
with an unshakable certainty,
that something great is coming
of which I have already seen
the first rays of light.
I believe that this world not only passes
but has to pass
in order to let the new world be born.
But I will not despair
when I do not see the results I want to see.
For in the midst of my work
I keep hearing the words of the One sitting on the throne:
"I am making the whole of creation new."
