Family Days
Prayer
Pastoral Prayers For All Seasons
Object:
How unrelenting, Holy Spirit, is your call to serve your kingdom. We thought with the approach of old age that we had fulfilled your call and would, therefore, be free of it. We aren't. It hasn't come back in exactly the same make-up as before. It is wearing a different hat, but as soon as the introductions were made we realized who it was that was bidding for our attention. What a blow to our carefully planned lives.
Why can't this disquieting call go away? Why must we deal with such unfinished business? Shouldn't younger ones step forward? Other people aren't bothered by it. It seems they're not called to task when they set aside their allegiance. Why is this weighty matter attached to us?
Please remember, O God, that we've grappled with this call to duty before. We've dedicated sleepless nights and grueling daytime hours to its resolution. At various times we believed we made progress in reaching the goal of our call -- at least we achieved a partial answer. It seems we have done enough, certainly our share. We've become weary and we want to rest. Is it so bad that we ask this after months and years of struggling to succeed?
This brings us to the matter of success. Why does our work need to succeed? Do you know what a painful and impossible goal this is? A striving after perfection would be best left in the hands of others -- our sons and daughters. People who have greater insight, persistence, who aren't so limited and weary as we are. Ones who are much better versed in the scriptures, who can say things better than we, who are gifted with a strength we no longer possess.
We don't know if we can say, "Yes," again. We're not sure if we fully said, "Yes," in the past. Can't we go along just as we are?
This confounded challenge, who put our names to it anyway? The proclamation, alas, is ours to give. No one else lives where we live. It is not one else's task. If we don't say, "Yes," no one else will, for at last this call is ours alone. No one else can breathe for us. No one else can beat our hearts. We shall put our hands to the task.
This we pray, in the name of him who calls us to gather the harvest. Amen.
Why can't this disquieting call go away? Why must we deal with such unfinished business? Shouldn't younger ones step forward? Other people aren't bothered by it. It seems they're not called to task when they set aside their allegiance. Why is this weighty matter attached to us?
Please remember, O God, that we've grappled with this call to duty before. We've dedicated sleepless nights and grueling daytime hours to its resolution. At various times we believed we made progress in reaching the goal of our call -- at least we achieved a partial answer. It seems we have done enough, certainly our share. We've become weary and we want to rest. Is it so bad that we ask this after months and years of struggling to succeed?
This brings us to the matter of success. Why does our work need to succeed? Do you know what a painful and impossible goal this is? A striving after perfection would be best left in the hands of others -- our sons and daughters. People who have greater insight, persistence, who aren't so limited and weary as we are. Ones who are much better versed in the scriptures, who can say things better than we, who are gifted with a strength we no longer possess.
We don't know if we can say, "Yes," again. We're not sure if we fully said, "Yes," in the past. Can't we go along just as we are?
This confounded challenge, who put our names to it anyway? The proclamation, alas, is ours to give. No one else lives where we live. It is not one else's task. If we don't say, "Yes," no one else will, for at last this call is ours alone. No one else can breathe for us. No one else can beat our hearts. We shall put our hands to the task.
This we pray, in the name of him who calls us to gather the harvest. Amen.
