I confess to you that I can’t touch this Jesus who a woman has to remind of who he’s supposed to be. I appreciate what it says about the humanity of our Christ but that’s not who I need him to be right now. I need Christ to be the savior of the world when so much is going wrong.

To all of that is keeping you and me awake at night, I want to remind you that there are people of faith praying even when you cannot. There are people that continue to find words to what is beyond words. I offered two prayers from Maren Tirabassi last week but again this week she speaks to the horrors that climate change bring to the shores of the United States in this prayer as Hurricane Ida approaches landfall. And then, there is this lovely prayer from enfleshed for when there is only sadness. And then, there was this prayer by the Rev. Stephanie Crowder for back to school that arrived in my inbox and reminded me of what is possible.

Laura Stephens-Reed shared this prayer and it is what I needed to hear most. It could work well as a prayer in worship this coming Sunday as you lean together into trust. It’s that word that caught in my throat in praying through Psalm 25 and the center of the prayer I offer you this week.

A Prayer Seeking Trust

Inspired by Psalm 125

O God, we trust in your goodness.
We step into the unknown every 
day in the hope that that
goodness will carry us.

We want to trust
that it is there
and that it has always
been there but we have 
been moved. We have been
pushed to the edge and doubted
that goodness in the land of the living
but we are not as strong
as we thought. We are
not who we believed
we were. 

O God, we want to trust 
you with our whole hearts.
We want to believe that you
surround us with possibility.
We do. Is is in that faith
that we beg you to
be good. Be the goodness
that we cannot see in 
every headline. Be the goodness
that we cannot find in every
unmasked stranger and let
that goodness -- your goodness -- 
turn our crooked, jaded,
hurting hearts away from
every doubt and worry
so that there is only trust.
There is only your 
infinite grace.abiding 
within us. Let us 
find that goodness
again in you. O God,
we seek your goodness.
Amen.

That’s all I’ve got for this week. I’m praying for you, dear pastor. I’m praying for you so much.