A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 4/24

It's about those numbers, Lord...

The numbers in the news every morning,
the number of newly diagnosed cases,
the number of victims Corona has claimed...

I'm drawn to those numbers.
I look for those numbers.
I study those numbers.
I pay attention to those numbers.

As those numbers go up
- my spirits go down
and when the stats decline
the pace is slight and so slow...

But those aren't the only numbers, Lord,
so I pray this morning,
draw me to figures of a different kind...

Draw me in gratitude
to the number of people in my life
who over the years have loved me, helped me,
nurtured and forgiven me:
lead me to write them, call them,
email or Skype them and pray for them
to offer my heartfelt thanks...

Let me look for and find the number of times
you nudge me today, how often you move me
to serve the needs of others,
at home, at work, in my neighborhood
or wherever a sister or brother
waits on my helping hand...

Open my eyes to the number of ways
you've shown yourself to me,
revealing yourself in the beauty of nature,
in my relationships and in my prayer;
help me study your presence, Lord,
in every way you appear in my life today...

And teach me to pay attention, Lord,
to the number of ways you speak to me,
whispering in my heart and my thoughts,
in the scriptures' Word and the words of all
who speak to me this day...

I'll still watch the news, Lord,
scanning the numbers that fall and rise,
day to day, from sorrow to joy...

But set my heart, I pray, on the number of ways
you show yourself to be One:
the One in my life to touch me with grace,
anoint me with healing, forgive me with mercy
and love me in so many ways,
more ways than I can number or count...

Amen.