Monday Morning Offering - 9

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

My nomad friend reminds me
it’s only early spring "down under"
- and of course, you know that, Lord!

But up on this side of the equator
the sun sets sooner each evening
and Labor Day's horizon
eclipses these august days…

So, I'm wondering, Lord:
why must good times come to an end?
They seem to come too seldom
to begin with…
and then, they’re gone...

And as wonderful as memories are,
they are, well, memories...

Why, Lord, must good days come to an end?
Why are the memories not enough?
Why is the fall-filtered beauty of light and leaves
not enough
today
to help me let go summer’s warmth
and pace and peace?

Seasons…
there are four-
hundred seasons or more
just in my life alone, Lord:
seasons of presence, seasons of pain;
seasons of sadness, seasons of gain;
seasons of sunlight, seasons of rain;
seasons of comfort, seasons of strain;
seasons of planting, seasons of grain;
seasons of waiting and waiting for seasons
to break the seasons’ chain…

So many, seasons, Lord…

And letting go of this summer is not easy…

I should be grateful for autumn:
your gentle preparation
of everyone and everything
for the dying winter will surely bring…

You know the seasons better than I, Lord,
and no season changes
around me or in me
but that you already know
how the changes
will change me...

Be with me, Lord,
in all the seasons of my life
and be with me in between the seasons,
when moving from one to the next
is itself a season to bear…

I offer you my heart this Monday morning, Lord,
and every morning this week
edging me to Labor Day
and the beginning of so many things…

Help me let go of what is slipping away...
Take my offered heart
and open me to what is new and changing
in the weeks and months ahead…

You are the source of the seasons, Lord,
and of the strength I need to live
in them and through them:
be my guide and walk with me
through this day, this week,
through this summer-fall season’s change…

Amen.


(Perhaps my prayer above and the video below are premature... Labor Day is not the end of warm days nor really the beginning of fall... Still, in American culture and in the clime of the northern hemisphere, many things do begin to change with the first Monday in September... And yes, my vacation's end is in sight and that, too, is a "season" about to change... My thanks to Kiwi Nomad for her reminder on the change of seasons down under...)



-ConcordPastor

Monday Morning Offerings I - VII

 

Every Season by Nicole Nordeman

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You
In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer...

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and what's to come
You are autumn...

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter...

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring...