Tuesday Prayer for 9/20/16: Battered

Inspired by Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Dear God:

I think we feel battered.

We seem to have set ourselves up for failure and pain by trying so hard to avoid failure and pain that we have

Forced

Other times and people to receive the burden of our failure and pain which means that other times and people have more failure and pain and that these other times and people can bare which means that failure and pain overflows further and, yet, we are

Surprised

That we are trudging through a flood of failure and pain that is up to our knees

And rising.

And, so, we feel battered.

And maybe we are.

(Some more than others)

And we have contributed to

Adding failure and pain to the mix.

(Some more than others)

And yet, you seem to say that

It is up to each generation to make this failure and pain their own.

More specifically,

It is up to this generation to make this failure and pain our own.

And, this is how

It is up to each generation to make this faith their own

Or, more specifically,

This is how this generation may make this faith our own.

(The vastness of the flood can seem overwhelming, and yet

If we dive in we may find that

Justice, Love and Grace

Are

Just

Under

The surface.

If we don't dive in

These things may be lost to us;

Our faith merely

a legend.)

Give us courage.

Amen.