A prayer of servanthood

When it comes to serving, we all choose who it will be, Jesus;

Some people are easy to serve:
Those we love, those who love us, those who are like us, those who show us their appreciation.

But, others make serving really hard:
Those we dislike and fear, those who attack or fear us, those who are different.
Those who seem to just take and give nothing back.

But, in all of our picking and choosing, you ask a very difficult thing of us, Jesus –
You ask us to be servants of all.

How are we to do this? How do we serve the weak, the poor, the neglected, and the strong, the wealthy, the
pampered? How do we serve the broken, the victims, the denied, and the breaker, the perpetrator, the denier?
How do we possibly serve all?

However it may be, Jesus, keep us from using our fear or confusion as an excuse not to serve; and help us just
to make serving the most natural response we have to anyone.

And may our service join with that of others:
To gently change our world into a place where all serve and all are served. Amen.

– John van der Laar

All around us

All around us, O God, creation preaches a silent sermon about your glory. The full, orange moon declares
your constant watchfulness; the early morning mist over a schoolyard speaks of your steadfast love; the
cool breeze through slowly changing leaves whispers of your grace.

Holy Jesus,
You ask questions which turn us speechless; you tell us things about yourself we imagine we need to
correct; you offer us a way of life we dare not refuse.

Spirit of Wisdom,
You stand in the midst of rush hour traffic crying out to us about our fascination with foolishness and
stretch out your hand to point to the One who walks towards us offering a cross.

God in Community, Holy in One, in this time together, may we hear you in the silence and the songs, and
discover you in the people around us today, tomorrow, and in the days to come. Amen.

– Thom Shuman

I need you

I need Your sense of time. Always I have an underlying anxiety about things. Sometimes I am in a hurry to
achieve my ends and am completely without patience. It is hard for me to realize that some growth is
slow, that not all processes are swift. I cannot discriminate between what takes time to develop and what
can be rushed because my sense of time is dulled. O to understand the meaning of perspective that I may
do all things with a profound sense of leisure of time.

I need Your sense of order. The confusion of the details of living is sometimes overwhelming. The little
things keep getting in my way, providing ready-made excuses for failure to do and be what I know I ought
to do and be. Much time is spent on things that are not very important while significant things are put in
an insignificant place in my scheme of order. I must unscramble my affairs so that my life will become
order. O God, I need Your sense of order.

I need Your sense of the future. Teach me to know that life is ever on the side of the future. Keep alive in
me the future look, the high hope. Let me not be frozen either by the past or the present. Grant me, O
Patient One, Your sense of the future without which all life would sicken and die.

“I Need You”
Howard Thurman

Breath Prayer

Inhale: I will wait for the Lord.

Exhale: You hear my voice.