Category Archives: prayer

A Prayer For Teachers

(Photo by Allie on Unsplash)

Dear God, Maker of the Magnificent,

Thank you for teachers. For the people whom you equipped with gifts of kindness, curiosity, and words, we rejoice. For those whose smiles have been branded into the hearts of their students, thank you. Keep them safe and well.

In this surprising time and in all times, teachers handle surprises. All day, who knows when glue will spill, or a stressed out kid will lose it, or technology will raise their blood pressure. They have survived endless weeks of indoor recess during frigid winters and their grace is a shining light in the world.

God, it was a grand idea that you made teachers. After online school in the spring, parents like me cannot thank you enough.

Today, bless teachers as they plan for this strange school year, doing the work they would normally be doing and so much more. With no incentive beyond doing what is best for kids, teachers are hard at work behind the scenes and they need you, Lord, to show up in their classrooms, on their devices, and in the rare quiet moments they have these days.

Make technology amazingly cooperative for each of them. Surround them with parents and guardians who care about their well-being. Strengthen their counselors and principals (especially the cute one at DMS) to respond to these challenges with a deep breath and extra wisdom.

Teach us all, God who put on flesh, to be humans who are gentle with one another. Teach us to be humans who first see the best in each other, and then help us bring out the very best in one another for the sake of the ones who will be walking into school doors next week.

Thank you for my cousin Penny in her 37th year of teaching, and my friend Suzanna in her very first. Amid the unknowns, I do know people like Penny and Suzanna will make this year special as usual for my own three kids in three different buildings. And you will be there, too, giver of peace and hope. As we find our way into this new school year, we find you here with us.

In the name of the one whose teaching of mercy and hope around the corner is enough for these days, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thank You Note to the Woods

http://www.paceminterris.org

Dear The Woods at Pacem in Terris Hermitage,

Thank you for welcoming me into your palace of greenery, where I lived as a hermit for four short days. Thank you for whispering words of greeting in the breeze through the oak leaves. Thank you for fresh air with the hint of campfire that I breathed so deeply each day, along with all the creatures who live in your palace.

I met the twitching chipmunk who dug in the leaves and darted away so quickly I could not see which direction he went. I met an otter who was swimming underneath the boardwalk to proudly bring home tall grass for his family. (And I’m sorry I scared him with my giggle, but he was so adorable I couldn’t stop myself.) I met a gray squirrel who would win any and every dance contest that involved standing still the longest, frozen in position. He looked stuffed, but I’m glad he wasn’t. I encountered deer who looked long and hard at me and then agreed to move off the walking trail and let me by, only when I disappointed them with the news I had nothing to give them. (I did assure them “Bambi” is one of my top five favorite movies.)

Thank you, The Woods, for welcoming me as a guest in your palace. And thank you, The Woods, for sharing the same Creator, and sharing the same need for one another.

Yours Truly,

Hermit in Cabin #3

Boiling Point

For weeks I waited for the pieces to come together to launch this website and tell you stories. My intention has been to share tales that might encourage people, maybe a person like you, and add levity to the daily work of raising kids, sustaining marriage, and all that you may do as one day spills into another.

And then George Floyd was murdered. Recently before, in my own America were the murders of other black Americans: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Dreasjon (Sean) Reed. Boiling point.

The pot had been simmering. For years and years heated by angry words, unchecked bias, and inequality that Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered for in 1968. The simmering pot of racism in a country someone once called a melting pot is now a boiling pot.

For a couple of years I had fled the Facebook and Twitter scene to avoid this kind of simmering. Social media can be anxiety-producing and I figured there was enough of that in my life so goodbye Facebook and Twitter. I deleted the apps on my phone and said goodbye to my newsfeed.

And that was nice. It was nice not to know all the anxiety-producing news and go about my life. It was nice to narrow my gaze to my own work and get ready to launch a website. It was nice to ignore the simmering pot.

Now the pot boils and there is no ignoring. I need to see the words on Facebook and Twitter. Otherwise, how would I believe the ignorance from my very own president? There is no filter on his Twitter feed. (Except when his words are too violent and Twitter has to take them down. ) There is no news bias on his feed. No one else to blame. As much as his subordinates would love to take away his Twitter account, I hope they never do. It is through those words of his that we see the words that hold true for the people who adore him.

Yearning for a glorified America is to yearn for a colorblind America with no awareness of the tension among people that needs to be named. The famous Twitter feed suggests we let the white people in charge take charge with military force. He stood in front of a medic station on a church lawn where people had been providing water, holding the written word of a God who sets people free.

We are to be color-amazed, as Bishop Eaton has preached. We are to be amazed at the uniqueness of people, the value of each breath, and the strength in each voice. This is not a time of this or that, them or me, us or you. No person is perfect in this boiling pot. We have all sinned. We have leaned on political allegiance instead of the freedom of Jesus Christ that is for each person.

There is a story our nation needs to tell. We can delete the apps and ignore it, but the simmering pot now boils. So pray. Pray all day long as you hear the news and realize we have so much to learn about this boiling pot. Pray, because only prayer (not the news) changes our perspective. Pray and realize the story of rage and racism is indeed your story and mine.