Hard prayers

Some weeks when we as staff pray through the congregational prayer requests, we are especially burdened by the weight of sorrow and loss in our beloved community. This was a hard week--many reasons for tears, anguish, uncertainty, anxiety, discouragement and grief.  John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses a lot descriptive language and associates God with light as “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:4) and “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5), and He most certainly was. 

But, until the light shines again for those whom we love and pray for,  A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark:

Go slow if you can. Slower. More slowly still. Friendly dark or fearsome, this is no place to break your neck by rushing, by running, by crashing into what you cannot see. Then again, it is true: different darks have different tasks, and if you have arrived here unawares, if you have come in peril or in pain, this might be no place you should dawdle. I do not know what these shadows ask of you, what they might hold that means you good or ill. It is not for me to reckon whether you should linger or you should leave. But this is what I can ask for you: That in the darkness there be a blessing. That in the shadows there be a welcome. That in the night you be encompassed by the Love that knows your name.

from Jan Richardson

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation