Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 9/29

I was so very grateful, Lord, yesterday,

    when my doctor told me,

        "All things are trending in the right direction..."

 

So, no, my problem isn't life-threatening

    (deserving of a hospital stay, yes)

but otherwise explicable, addressable, 

    manageable and treatable,

not limiting or ultimate - it's livable!

  

I'm grateful, Lord, and at the same time

    I'm so very-keenly-much-aware

the day will come

    when the news won't be as promising...

I'm remembering, Lord, what I posted on FaceBook

    - a week before this week's adventure:

 

 

Yes, I think differently, and pray differently,

    and, it's to be hoped, 

        I live differently, knowing,

    that in this great adventure called my life,

        I'm closer not to its end 

            than I am to its beginning...

And there's the key word, Lord: closer...

I'm closer to what I've been approaching

    since the moment I was conceived...

I'm closer to what I've been living for 

    and moving towards, every day of my life...

I'm closer, in time, to meeting you, O Lord,

    you who've known me since before I came to be;

    you who've been with me every step along the way;

    you who've lived within 

        my every waking, sleeping moment;

    you who've been drawing me always  

        closer and closer

            to your waiting, outstretched, loving arms...

But this week, Lord, reminded me

    that as I'm growing closer to you

I'll also be leaving more and more behind me:

    joys and blessings, gifts and graces,

    pain and sorrow, loss and grief,

    ups and downs, ins and outs,

and stories upon stories upon stories

    of all the ways you love me, heal me,

    hold me in your loving arms,

    preserve and keep and save me

    for the day you'll draw me oh-so-close

    that you and I will be as one...

So, yes, Lord:

    I'm thinking differently, 

        praying differently,

    and, I hope, I'm living differently

        this awesome gift, 

            this great adventure called my life...

       

Remind me, Lord,

    that being closer to life's beginning 

        than I am to its end

    is no cause for worry, for anxiety or fear...

 

But a cause for curiosity?  

    Yes, I'll admit to that..

For concern? 

    Well, at least a little is in order...

 

For wonderment?

    Oh, of that my heart is full...

 

 For anticipation?

    The unknown is enticing!

 

For trust?

    What other path might lead to you?

For hope?

     How else might I put trust in you?

 

For faith?

    Yes, faith:  

        the realization of things hoped for

            and evidence of things not seen... 

And cause for love, Lord:

    the love from which my life was made,

    the love which gives my soul its breath

        and shaped my whole existence,

    the love in which I found myself 

        in finally finding you, 

    the love you are, the love that draws me

        closer, ever closer 

            to the love for which I'm made...

 

So, no cause, Lord,

    for worrying, for fear or for anxiety

but only cause to reach my arms to yours

    in faith and hope and love

drawing closer, ever closer

    to the promise you have made me,

    to the promise that you are,

    to the promise you will keep:

        the gift of life forever...

 

Amen.

 

Psalm 16 by Marty Haugen,

    performed by SaintAnthonyCantors 

 

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You are my inheritance, O Lord!

 

Faithful God, I look to you,

you alone, my life and fortune,

never shall I look to other gods,

you shall be my one hope.

 

From of old you are my heritage,

you, my wisdom and my safety,

through the night you speak within my heart,

silently you teach me. 

So my heart shall sing for joy,

in your arms I rest securely,

you will not abandon me to death,

you shall not desert me.

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