Friday Prayer, January 19, 2018

 

Let’s make room today. Let’s clear out what we’ve been using to numb or avoid or block. Let’s trust that in the quiet, open space there is healing.

And then let’s listen….

***

Patient, Gentle, God,

 

I can be so afraid of emptiness.

 

There are so many ways to stuff out

the echoes of hollowness….

fill the house with unneeded stuff,

fill the wallet with money,

fill the garages with spares of this and that,

fill the belly with more and more food,

fill the mind with whatever distractions can be found,

fill the time with busy-ness….

 

But it won’t pad the emptiness,

or fill the void.

 

Give me the courage, God, to clear this clutter!

To see in this empty space a sacredness,

a needed gift,

a place you will come and get to work.

 

Make me be alone with you

and with the things within me

I’ve been avoiding,

or not even aware of.

 

Use this open space to

bring about transformation

where your Spirit shapes my attitudes,

leads my thoughts,

guides my decisions,

covers my conversations.

 

You promise that

to be filled with your Spirit

is to be in formation –

to head toward the abundant purposefulness.

 

With your Spirit in me, I am never empty,

nor is my life.

 

Fill and form me, Loving One, today.

Remind me I have all I need in and through You,

and that there is no reason to be afraid.

 

Amen.