Welcome to Responding with Prayer,
An opportunity to respond to the complex everyday experiences that lift us up and bring us down.
My name is Jess and I have struggled with attending to prayer,
So I hope this little offering brings you closer to the Creator.
Today's meditation is on living into your leadership.
To start,
Let's take five big breaths.
Deep breathing has been studied and found to change how we engage stress and situations.
This is good for slowing down,
Preparing for prayer,
But also a good practice for all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.
So feel yourself breathe for just one minute.
That was 60 seconds.
If your mind went to other places,
That happens.
It's okay and natural.
You're still here,
So let's move on.
Take a moment and identify one person or situation you are grateful for as you do this today.
Whether you're loud or in your head,
Express gratitude towards God for that person or situation.
There are times in many of our lives when we need God or others to give us a kick in the right direction.
Our fear,
Self-doubt,
Or the discouragement of others keep us from our purpose.
A poem by Marianne Williamson says that your playing small doesn't serve the world.
It may be time to step up and into the moment God has placed in front of you.
If you're able,
Put your arms out and turn your palms up in a posture of release toward the Creator.
Our bodies are an important part of prayer.
The Christian scriptures tell us of a very practical spiritual opportunity.
Cast your cares towards the divine.
Imagine you wrote the situation you need to step into on the palm of your hands and how it makes you feel.
When you offer this up to God as an act of submission,
What words would you write on your hands?
God,
We place into your hands these things on our hands.
We give to you the opportunity that is in front of us and its impact on our faith.
A lot of meditation teaches the necessary ability to release.
Let's also focus on what healthy things we put into that space of release.
And for releasing this opportunity to step into leadership,
What are we needing to take on?
As you close your hands and bring your arms back to your body,
What accompanying things do you need as an assurance in order to leap?
How about faith?
Trust?
Risk?
Courage?
Not stepping into leadership in front of us keeps us from our purpose.
However,
In prayer,
We slow down and make commitments to our core foundations.
Spend a minute expressing to God how this opportunity is impacting your life and what freedoms you want to live into.
God,
We place into your hands this thing on our hands.
God,
We accept the freedom that comes with submission to you.
We often fight against the very abundant life that you have for us.
So we accept the grace of call,
The risk of faith that is in front of us.
And we accept the courage to act.
Now,
Taking this time today did not make you jump into your leadership.
It may have changed your orientation towards it.
You may need to take some greater steps.
But the great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition often maintained that prayer's greatest gift is not that it suddenly changes our situations,
But that it often changes us.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
