Give us hearts that trust in your goodness, 

even when the ground beneath us begins to shift and give way.

If we react to everything happening around us, we won’t make it.  

Help us to know what is ours to do. 

Oh God, this is the work of a lifetime, and we need your help.  Of all the things you ask us to do, loving our neighbor, not as we want to be loved, but as they do, is perhaps the most humbling and baffling. 

You are enough.  

I know you are, because I made you that way. 

We show up expecting death, and are astonished by new life. ..

You love the world in all of its wonder and mystery, 

but you love it no less in the ordinary, repetition of our daily lives.  

…there is nowhere that you are not.

Whether on the first day of the year, or the last, 

You are a never-ending provider of new beginnings and fresh starts.  Hallelujah.  

God, I have some suggestions.  

You may not have noticed, 

but there are some people around me who need to change…

Grant your continuing grace, we pray, to all who lead your church,  that they may, with courage, humility and faithfulness, 

attend to the work you have placed before them…

We long to feel that rush of Holy wind blowing in our lives, 

knowing with all our heart, soul, mind and strength that you are God and that we are living in the flow of your love for us.  

Break through our distractions and our resistance, that we might be truly yours - 

courageous in love, free from bitterness, eager to forgive, 

at peace with our neighbors and with ourselves. 

You set the stars to light the night, and sent Jesus to shine in our hearts.  

And yet this world we live in still feels scary, desperate, angry, and unpredictable.  

We try to save ourselves through power, control, wealth, and popularity.  

They fail us, every time.