Friday Prayer, September 2, 2016

It is time for fresh rhythm… I have missed my regular journaling and prayer practice during a summer of numerous trips and other writing deadlines. Summer sabbath is important – when I do what I don’t normally do, I appreciate (and hunger for) the ordinary even more. And that is a gift, to love my own life in a renewed way.

I find myself particularly reflective on this seasonal threshold. Labor Day weekend brings a shift in my soul. It signifies new beginnings and the start of the year more powerfully, in some ways, than does January 1.

And so I’m asking a lot of those new-year-kind of questions that transitions often summon…

What kind of rhythm will I create this fall?

            What sacrifices am I willing to make for what I really want? Do I know what I really want?

           Where am I being asked to step outside my comfort zone? (A great podcast about running shares how “the blessing lies outside your comfort zone,” both in running and in life).

Will I celebrate progress, rather than striving for perfection?

This fall, I’m inspired to expand the hope and vision I have for myself (and I pray you will too). We’re often seeing this for others – all the things they could do or could be. But can we do it for ourselves?

I am praying this autumn will be a time you hear from God in a beautiful and tender way, and that you take a step further into the life you know you must live.

O Jesus,

Thank you for how you have traveled with us this summer …

you’ve guided us,

held us,

 as we’ve made road trips to visit family, waited at airport gates thick with frustration and delays, buckled our kids in the car for an adventure at the zoo, driven across town to eat crisp, cold salads with a dear friend, folded starched clothes and packed the suitcase yet another time for a business trip….

You’ve traveled with us, Jesus, as we’ve sat in doctor’s waiting rooms, as we’ve kissed grandkids goodbye on soft, smooth cheeks and tried to hold back tears, as we’ve lingered in the kitchen alone with a cup of coffee and found the house so quiet, too quiet…

You’ve held us through weeks that were stressful and weeks that evaporated in elation…weeks where we were complacent and selfish and weeks we were sacrificial and servant-hearted…weeks when we were honest and weeks we didn’t even recognize the person in the mirror….You never failed to remind us at the end of the week that you loved us and still had good for us to do….How we thank you, traveling and strengthening God, for going with us through these summer months.

We give you thanks, Jesus, for the beginning of a new school year, a fresh rhythm, a different season. We hold out all these soul-stirrings…questions about who we are and what you call our lives to be.

Please bring us toward that…toward you.

We pray in your faithful name, Jesus – you who have walked with us this summer and now hold our hand in autumn’s entrance.

Amen.

P.S. If interested, please check out a couple fun links to some work I did this summer.

* An interview with my writing group (LOVE)

* The latest with Illustrated Children’s Ministry (I helped with the worship activity sheets for your kiddos to enjoy during church)