How do you respond to change - particularly change among friends and seasons of life?
The following is a portion of a prayer attributed to Alicia Akins and Douglass McKelvey. Can you resonate with what is being prayed?
O Christ, who journeys with me all my days.
You have walked every unknowably lonely path my feet will ever tread and are all the all-knowing sovereign who apportions that which my soul most requires. So lead me now. I commit this solitary season to you.
My community has hollowed out. Those with whom I once enjoyed intimate friendship have traveled a more predictable path, at a more uniform pace, while I am the one left behind, lingering on in what feels more and more like an overstayed season.
Where I once hoped for deepening community, loneliness has found me instead. I feel friendsick here.
There was no sudden rupture or break leading to this emotional distance, just the gradual shifting of lives, each following their own courses.
And so many of these changes are expressions of your blessing in the lives of people I love, O Lord. I would not begrudge them these new joys. My heart is glad for them. But I grieve the gradual fading of the former blessings we enjoyed together. Our gatherings have grown infrequent. And when we are together, we seem to hold so much less in common.
Even so, O Lord, I know I am yours. I trust the goodness of your will. So teach me what it means to faithfully follow you, my King, in this and every circumstance.
Guard me against comparison and its chief co-conspirator: discontent. Help me keep watch for the evidences of your grace extended to me, even in this lonely place - gently reminding me that any circumstance you ordain will be for the eternal benefit of my soul and of your kingdom…
As I mourn the loss of community I cannot reconstruct, may I better learn what it means to live as a pilgrim, cherishing each blessing in its season, while never confusing these temporary gifts with their eternal Giver. In my sacred and solitary present, teach me to release all expectations for my present, and my future, into your kind and capable hands.
For this I know to be true: Even when my faith falters, you, O Lord, will still prove your faithfulness to me…
Now quiet the inner voices of disappointment, frustration, and regret, O Christ, over good things now past. Give me peace sufficient for this moment, and grace that I might persist in seeking you. Let me see planted in the heart of this and every loss, some seed of eternal gain.
For this I know to be true: That in this seat of pain and disappointment, you, O Lord, will work your greatest good for me, that you might offer greater good through me.
In the name of Christ, I pray. Amen.
So what resonates with you? For me, it’s that which is highlighted. Blessings today - whatever today brings!
Very sad. The fact that not only is this going on within our country but also in our church family our own lives. It's happening so slowly that we often miss seeing it until it's too late. As we stand by watching it happening, the rift widens until it seems impossible to bridge. Do we give up or do we try to mend it? If you're blessed with a close family like mine, you continue to nurture your relationships, depending ALWAYS upon God to make a way! Without the Grace of God, all things will fail. Glory to God and His Son Jesus Christ!
I have lost many loved ones and friends but still always knowing God is with me and praying I will always trust him.