Prayer for "Disquiet in the Ranks" Sermon March 22, 2009

Loving Lord, we believe in our hearts that you know us truly. You listen closely to our every thought, our every curiosity, our every desire and our every need. We believe that your desire for us is to know joy and know it now, immediately, not at some far off time in the future. We believe that you intend for us to live abundantly with joy in abundance, love in abundance, peace in abundance and hope in abundance. Help us to recognize joy when it smiles upon us. Help us to embrace it surely when it tries to keep us company. Let us not smother hope, deny love, or curse peace. Let us not decide that because these gifts are born in the smile on someone else’s face that they are not meant to be ours. Let us embrace what is shared and treasure it in our hearts. Let us not be all the time fretters or worriers distracted and consumed by what tomorrow may or may not bring. Rather teach us to live in this moment, right now to be blessed in this moment and to be transformed by the glad companionship of our fellows in Christ Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen.