Prayer, Because Yes

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Saturday, December 8, 2018

Prayer, Because Yes

Ever have an awful couple of weeks? I have. A loved one is seriously ill, and I need to travel out of state to the hospital. Yes, it is Advent. Yes, I am in one of the busiest times of the church year and of the calendar year. And yes, I am taking time out to go and see this dear loved one.

Sometimes, I need to give myself permission.

I am a member of a dear church some miles away from my house and from where I serve another church. This dear church has had an online Advent calendar each year. The Rev. Barb Bolsen submitted this marvelous poem to the church online Advent devotional. I appreciate so much these messages of encouragement and hope that come quietly into my email box early each morning. This was the one for today.

God Says Yes To Me – Kaylin Haught I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic and she said yes I asked her if it was okay to be short and she said sure is I asked her if I could wear nail polish or not wear nail polish and she said honey She calls me that sometimes she said you can do just exactly what you want Thank God I said And it is even okay if I don’t paragraph My letters Sweetcakes God said Who knows where she picked that up What I’m telling you is Yes Yes

The magazine this poem was printed in, This Land (thislandpress.com), says Ms. Haught lives in Oklahoma. She lives in a small town, in a house older than the state itself.

I love the way Ms. Haught had such confidence in a loving, nurturing God. I appreciate that God talked back to this dear woman in the poem as she prayed, addressing her sass and questioning and inconsistency. (I know I have sass, questions, and inconsistency. Lots of all of them.) And sometimes, I just need to give myself the permission. Permission to pray, to go and visit a loved one, permission to say “yes.”

Dear loving God, thank You for Your nurture and love. Thank You for the promise You give in Jesus. Thank You for giving me—us—permission to be and to do and to love. Amen.

(The poem and this devotional originally appeared in the Equality Illinois “Seasons of Inclusion”)

@chaplaineliza 

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Week-After-Christmas Prayers

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Week-After-Christmas Prayers

The week after Christmas does tend to be a bit of a downer. Anti-climactic, as it were.

This year? Especially so, with an elderly loved one dying two weeks ago, then going to the funeral in another state, last week. And, on top of that, all of the December and Advent and Christmas activities and festivities going on.

Apparently, it wasn’t only my extended family that had it rough. A lot of people had it rough. Some are even calling 2016 another annus horribilis.

Just this evening, I came to the realization that I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. I know I try to be strong, and caring, and honest, and willing to serve—all the time. However, sometimes things pile up so high, and get so heavy. I need to say “Enough is enough.”

I need some rest and relaxation time. Just what I had planned for tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. (Sunday, I need to be back in the pulpit.) My dear husband and I will travel to see my sister for the next few days, and I will even leave my laptop at home. (Gasp!)

If anyone would like to pray for me, I will gratefully accept prayers! Believe me, I have a full slate of things on my To-Do List waiting for me, when I come back.

However, I am still going to pray while traveling. I will take my prayer book with me while I am gone. Perhaps, I will have a fresh perspective on both prayer and life-in-general when I get back. Perhaps, in 2017, we can all make a fresh start.

Dear God, thank You for Your many blessings. Thank You for the opportunity and possibility to get away, to see family, and to rest and relax. And, thank You for dear friends, who uphold me in prayer. Help me to remember my friends and loved ones, too. Amen, and amen.

@chaplaineliza

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Why not visit my companion blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.  #PursuePEACE. My Facebook page, Pursuing Peace – Thanks! And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

We All Can Use Prayer

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Friday, November 18, 2016

We All Can Use Prayer

Know the experience of having a seriously ill loved one in the hospital? Yeah, me, too.

I am in that exact position, right now. An elderly relative is in hospice care right now. Yes, it is sad. Came into town a few weeks ago, and did not look good then. After a trip to the hospital, and a stint in rehab, back to the hospital five days ago. And just three days ago, in hospice. The situation has been changed (Upgraded? Downgraded?) to terminal.

All of which is relatively fast, for a time frame. (I ought to know, since as a former chaplain, I have some familiarity with hospitals. Not as much as some, of course, but I have more than a nodding acquaintance.)

Yes, it is different when it’s my loved one in the hospital. Except, it isn’t. Not really. Almost like I did in the hospital with a family in ICU with a patient who was actively dying. Except for my family, it’s like I’m on 24-hour call just in case, with my ears wide open for any notice or call.

I still pray for the situation, and for the medical staff, and for the family and loved ones. I still am concerned for all of the long-distance friends. (Except, in this case, I am intimately acquainted with all of those concerned.) I still am there for others, whether they want to talk, or just have me be there, with them.

I repeat—it is incredibly sad.

Let us pray. Dear God, who holds the universe in the span of Your hand, You hold each of us in that same loving hand. We come before You with a multitude of hurts, of fears and anxieties, of pains and aches and untenable situations. We unload them here before You, dear God. Dear Holy Comforter, we ask that You come alongside of all those who grieve, who mourn, and who are hurting. Dear Heavenly Physician, we pray You may assist all those under the care of medical personnel. And, please—God—be with my loved ones as they gather together. I pray for the hands that touch that dear loved one—help all the hands to be loving, caring, thorough, and knowledgeable. Lastly, dear God, be with me. Help me to be there (in Your presence) for others as much as I am for myself. Dear Lord, in Your mercy, hear all of our prayers.

@chaplaineliza

Like what you read? Disagree? Share your thoughts with your loved ones and continue the conversation.

Why not visit my companion blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.  #PursuePEACE. My Facebook page, Pursuing Peace – Thanks! And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

Heal, O Lord! We Pray.

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – January 28, 2015

Heal, O Lord! We Pray.

O, to be healed!

I was a chaplain for most of the past ten years. Regularly, I saw patients and their loved ones in serious, traumatic, even end of life situations. People asked, no, begged me to intercede on their behalf. Or, on their loved one’s behalf. And, I would.

I know the extreme sadness and grief of a patient and family as life ebbs away. I recognize the agony and despair over a difficult diagnosis of a serious illness. Yet, I would pray when asked. Even, when patients and loved ones had no words and I left them, exited the room in respectful silence. I prayed then, too.

Right now, I have a good friend whose dear loved one is in hospice. It’s been a several-year fight, a serious series of pitched battles. The dear loved one is sinking, slipping gently and gradually away. And I pray.

“Why?” “Why me?” “Why my loved one?” When asked this, I often must say, “I am sorry. I don’t know.” Truly, I don’t know why this person, and not that one.

I know some things about prayer, though. I know prayer is communication with God. I know God wants us to be in relationship—with God, as well as with one another. I know prayer is love. I know prayer shows my concern for others as well as a request for encouragement and support from God. I know God will encourage and support me, too, if I ask.

So, these are things I know. Rather, I strive to remind myself of them sometimes, at those times when I have doubts, or fears, or am angry with God.

This thing I also know: as soon as each person is born into the world, we all know how they are going to get out of it. Each one is going to die. (I am sure of this. If you think hard about it, you are, too.) We don’t know when, we aren’t sure how long each one has. Just—each of us has an allotted span of days. As Psalm 90 tells us, “teach us to number our days.” Count each day as precious. Live one day at a time.

And I pray.

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Why not visit my sister blog, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.

(also published at www.matterofprayer.net