A Prayer for the Morning After
A Prayer for the Morning After
9:30 AM, 11/6/24
Last night was hard. Sleep wouldn’t come easily and wouldn’t stay. Now I’m tired, disoriented and trying to get my brain to understand and my heart to accept what I now know. As the blurriness begins to come into focus, my prayers begin to form, and from the hope that still lingers deep within, they start to rise..
Almighty God, for those moments the world feels different, remind me that while some things are now more fully known, the world is the same today as it was yesterday, when hope felt more abundant.
Almighty God, when I feel like fear, meanness and cruelty are more powerful than trust, kindness and love, remind me that even when we operate from the shadows of our beings, there is more good than bad in all of us.
Almighty God, when I am afraid because I am part of a group that has been called names, demonized, and made to feel like an outsider, remind me that I am not alone, and surround me with community that reminds me of my dignity and belovedness.
Almighty God, when I am afraid that some of my freedoms will be stripped and I will feel like less of a person in my homeland, remind me that my wholeness came first from you, as you carefully, thoughtfully and lovingly crafted me to be the wondrous person I am.
Almighty God, when I feel guilty that my privilege will protect me from any changes that may come, remind me that in your perfect design, all of humanity is interconnected, and when one of us suffers, all of us suffer.
Almighty God, when it doesn’t make sense to me right now, remind me that it doesn’t have to – that I can still move forward in confusion and do the things you have commanded – love and serve God and my neighbors, welcome the stranger, work for justice and peace, and walk humbly as your child for every day I am fortunate enough to be alive, willing and able.
Almighty God, when I question my patience, my resilience and my sanity when things don’t go the way I want or expect them to go, remind me that the story of God through all of time is filled with surprises, defeats, frustrations and moments of despair, but that same story of God always moves forward, taking the sometimes circuitous route toward the Kin-dom you have described.
What a blessing to be able to find words, any words, to lift up to our Creator, no matter how unpolished or nonsensical they may seem, and to send them off with the heartfelt affirmation of faith that can be shaken but never stopped, “Amen.”
