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This prayer from Walter Brueggemann is more than twenty years old, and yet it’s words seem to fit the circumstances in which we find ourselves right now.  And the incredible truth at the heart of this prayer, that God is right here with us “in the midst,” brings the promise of hope and peace that is our unending need.

In the midst of all the pushing and shoving

In the midst of all the pushing and shoving
        among us,
        in the world and in the church,
        propelled by anxiety and
        acted as brutality,
You have planted yourself in all your fidelity.
You have placed yourself among us
    in steadfastness and abiding care
    present in the day,
    alert in the night,
    making us all safe and noticed and cared for.
So evidence your fidelity as to curb our anxiety,
            as to restrain our brutality,
            as to overcome our alienation.
By your fidelity, renew us,
        renew church,
        renew city,
        renew world.
Give us the safety to love you fully,
            to love neighbour well,
                in glad obedience.  Amen.

(Poem from: Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, Edited by Edwin Searcy, Fortress Press Minneapolis 2003. page 118.)

May God’s blessing be upon you today,
Dianne

Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash