5 October 2025 Prayer for the Deacon, Pastor, Chaplain

Patient God, I’m so stubborn sometimes, like that’s news to you. And yet, your stubborn love persists. For me. It uproots me and grounds me all at the same time. So give me ears to hear your good news today without expectations hung onto what it might sound like or look like or actually be. Stir up my get up and go when it seems to have got up and went. Give me the faith of a mulberry tree bounding toward the sea, certain only of you. And as I hit the water, let the sound of the waves and all that lies beneath fill my ears and my being with wonder and mystery at who you are and what you can do. Fill me with joy, hope, or whatever! Maybe it’s just the ability to do my job today. I’ll take a full helping of that today, please. Because this love for me from you is worth it. Not in a “pat me on the back because did you see what happened in there?!” kind of worth it. But just knowing that your love can look so small and weak and powerless. And I know something different about it and what it is capable of doing. Your love has changed my whole life and I believe it can and has and will change the world. It’s just that the waiting is the hardest part, as St. Tom Petty sang. Sometimes your good news, God, your love, your dream for the world seems to be on pause or taking its own sweet and terrible time. And yet, you tell me to wait for surly it will come. Yee-haw.

Give this same kind of patient, stubborn love to my family, my friends, my colleagues. Especially those who are sick, amid transition in call, or lonely. You are the faithful one. You are love. It is enough. Which is just what I need to hear today. Thank you, God. I love you. Amen.

Oh dear Child of God! Don’t lose heart. Don’t be afraid – God is with you.