Helping a Friend Sort and Pack

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Monday, June 27, 2016

Helping a Friend Sort and Pack

Moving is a challenge. Cross-country moving is even more of a challenge.

My spiritual director is preparing to leave town, move to the East Coast, and change positions in her place of employment. The most poignant part for me is that she is permanently relocating to her new city. She has been a steady and stable part of my life for the past ten years. (Actually, she has lived here in Chicago for decades. I have known her for quite a while. She has been my spiritual director for ten years.)

When I think of Jay, I think steady. Stable. Thoughtful. Even keel. Soft spoken. Communicating carefully selected wise words. Just what I need, so much of the time. However, I am afraid I was not the best or most responsive direct-ee. I am afraid I did not always pray for Jay the way she prayed for me. (Thanks for the many, many prayers, for me and my family.)(True confession: I am sad and sorry to say I still do not pray for Jay as often as I ought. However, God and I are still in the middle of an extended conversation about prayer, and how I pray, and how often. The conversation has been lasting for years.)

Two more friends were helping Jay sort and pack her office. A wonderful older couple, well-versed in the way of assisting friends and colleagues with packing, moving, and making transitions to a new and different place. New way of living and being. (I’ve known them for years, too.)

I will sincerely miss Jay. What’s more, she will be greatly missed by many, many people in the Chicago area. Such a bittersweet time for me, helping her get ready to move. To begin again, to begin in a different location, begin in a new position. New beginnings after decades in the same place. Exciting new possibilities! I am sad for myself, yet excited for her. Truly.

Good-bye, friend. God’s blessings, and all the best.

@chaplaineliza

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Why not visit my sister blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.   @chaplaineliza  And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

Be Present, O Merciful God

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Be Present, O Merciful God

It’s a good thing God has big ears and can hear a whole lot of people praying at one time. It’s a good thing God is merciful. A number of people I know are crying out to God right now. And, it’s a good thing God is present. I mean, really here. (Or, wherever people need God to be.)

As I read through the Evening Prayer on www.dailyoffice.org tonight, I came to an abrupt halt as I read through one of the collects for the evening. Just before the private, free time of intercession. I have it handy. “Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

The beginning and ending of this section gives me no problems. I can agree with every word—from the first and last parts of the prayer. But God, the part of the prayer that particularly throws me this evening is “we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness.”

Just out of curiosity, I put the sentence above into the search bar on my computer. Lo and behold, I found this, from the Diocese of Mississippi. A notice for a spiritual formation retreat. ‘Life is full of transitions. Some are chosen while others are thrust upon us. Within each of these moments of change and adjustment there come opportunities to encounter God in unique ways. This retreat will provide an occasion to explore the transitional moments in our lives and discover anew the One who abides with us in “external changelessness.”’ [1]

What a thought. God abides with each of us in external changelessness, even while we are going through transitional moments. Yet, we can encounter God at work, at home, in the hospital, even as we travel from place to place.

Each and every moment is so often a transition from one thing to the next. It just so happens that many people in my acquaintance are going through awful things right now. Or, their loved ones are. So difficult to bear. The weight of the knowledge and sometimes even the despair.

Yet, God’s changelessness is so much greater than the transitions you or I or your neighbors or my friends or the people across town or—you get the idea. God is forever the same. Loving, constant, faithful, caring—praise God, we can encounter this God, for real.

@chaplaineliza

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

Visit the website http://dailyoffice.org/ to find out more about Morning and Evening Prayer!

Why not visit my sister blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.   @chaplaineliza And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

[1] http://www.dioms.org/digital_faith/events/3160983