Retreat Notes #4

    The view from my window this week

I'm away this week at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, MA.  I hold you all in my heart in prayer this week so in a way, you're here with me on retreat. To share my experience with you, I'll post occasional notes like the one below.  Please, come pray with me!

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

If you're following my Retreat Notes, you might remember what I wrote yesterday morning: 

The more I reflect on my past, the more I see the warm fingerprints of Jesus on everything and everyone who touched my life. The more I ponder what I've done with my life, the more I realize it's really the story of what Jesus has done with my life.

I stayed with those thoughts for the rest of the day and into the evening and then wrote a kind of litany of who Jesus is in my life and how he shares his life with me. With not too much adaptation, I'm hoping you can make this litany your own in prayer...

 

Lord Jesus: 

- You're the training wheels I still need on my two-wheeler.

- You're my coach before every big game
      and every day is a really big game.

- You're the safety net under my all my foolishness.

- You're my big brother, standing by the edge of the playground,
      protecting me from wise guys and bullies.

- You’re the GPS in my soul, leading me home to the truth.

- You're the air bag poised to cushion my crashes.

- You're the off-stage prompter, feeding me my lines.

- You're my first responder, always ready and on call.

- You're my Creator and I'm the work of your hands.

- You call me by name, you never forget my name
      and you name me your beloved.

- You're my way, my truth and my life.

- You're the source of all my talents, skills and gifts.

- You're my strength in my weakness

      which means you're always my strength.

- You listen to my every word,
      you heed my every thought, you hear my every prayer.

- You attend to my greatest joys and my deepest sorrows,
      all my emotions and my moods, my successes and my failures.

- You've inspired everything I've ever
      thought, imagined, written, spoken and done.

- You comfort and you challenge me:
      you give me rest and you send me in your name.

- You're the font of any wisdom I may find or have or share.

- You're the heart and brains of this outfit: Jesus and Austin.

- You've given me friends
   to love me, encourage me, protect me, defend me,
      care for me, play with me, pray with me,
         to please and delight me.

- You've been
   my silent partner, my much better half, my co-conspirator,
      my advocate and my lenient judge.

- You're my best friend - now and for ever.

 

- You take joy in me and in my stumbling efforts

     to do the next right thing. 

- You're my safe harbor, my refuge in hard times,
    my light in the darkness, my shelter from the storm.

 

- You’re the One who has my back,

       who wipes away my tears,

       whose shoulder I can lean on,

       whose open arms embrace me.

- You’re my confidence and courage

       when I’ve no reason left for hope.

- You're my creativity, my ingenuity,
    the playwright of my dreams and schemes,

    the author of the story of my life.

- You're my teacher, always helping me
   to comprehend and understand this life
      and to freely share with others 

         the fruit of what I've learned.

 

- You're the intelligence that leads me
   to connect the dots,
   to connect ideas to plans,
      parts to the whole,
      the past to the future,

      mystery with reality,
      the scriptures to our lives
      and your people to you

         and to your word.

- You're the thread

       running through the whole of my life,

       weaving me together with others and with you
       in a bond that’s strong, warm and enduring.

- You're the reality that makes sense of my very existence:

    apart from you I would not be,
    without you my life would have no meaning,    

       my work would have no value,
    without you I'd have nothing
      - while with you I have everything I need.

- You’re my Alpha and Omega:

      the beginning, the source of all I am,

      the completion of all I’m called to be.

 

- You’re my Lord and you're my God,

       you're my Savior and Redeemer:

   I’m your child, I'm your servant,

          I'm your own and your beloved.

 

For all of this I thank you

   and I praise you, Lord my God,

    from whom all blessings flow! 

Perhaps you'll find a quiet place and some time

to write your own litany or to add to the one above

where you find the fingerprints of Jesus in your life,

where you find Jesus making your story his story

and his story yours... 

 

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