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Today through the writing of Walter Brueggemann we acknowledge the fact that God’s people are different in some ways and we hear the honest confession that this difference is “at times a burden.” Humans often find it comforting to fit in and challenging to realize that we are different than others.  So as you come to God in this time of prayer today, may you hear God’s invitation to talk with Him about what it means to you to be different and how you feel about that. 

And we are different

We are counted your people.
    We are grateful to be called by you, and
        glad for our special way of faith in the world.
You have marked us and named us and signed us,
    and we are different,
        different memories,
        different hopes,
        different fears,
        different commands,
        different ways of being.
That difference we find glorious, but at times a burden too severe.
    We yearn to be like the others,
        like the others in power,
            in money,
            in freedom,
            in certitude,
            in security,
        like the others,
            uncalled, unburdened, unembarrassed.
We come to you in that deep trial of difference and likeness.
    Engage us in our difference.
    Give us courage for our different vocations,
        and energy for our different hope.
In the name of your crucified, Easter One, so unlike all the others.
Amen.

May God’s blessing be upon you today,
Dianne

(Poem from: Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, Edited by Edwin Searcy, Fortress Press Minneapolis 2003. page 89.)

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