Holy God,
We are grateful -
for summer days slowly turning to fall,
for weather that invites us to be outside,
God, we are grateful.
For schools that teach our children,
for work that offers satisfaction,
for opportunity to search for opportunity.
God we are grateful,
for families and friends,
for a church that helps us love each other,
while we work together for a better day.
God we are grateful,
for the moments we find our thanks-giving easy.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.
God, we are grateful when our thanksgiving is easy,
and we confess,
we often give thanks only when it is easy.
Oh God, what must we sound like to you,
when the storms begin to rage?
What must we sound like to you,
when our thanksgivings inevitably turn?
Turn to calls for help,
sighs of lost hope?
From the belly of beasts,
what is it you hear from our lips?
Our desperate pleas,
our lists of needs,
our anger at those who tossed us in?
What must it be like,
for our grateful offerings,
to turn to desperate assurances,
pleading with you that we won’t travel this way again?
We might be tempted to resent our turning, Holy God.
But you don’t. You won’t.
What must it be like,
to be on the receiving end of all that is us?
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.
What must it do to your heart, Holy God,
when our gratitude turns?
Do you prefer the cries, the rants, the painful mumbles,
over the silence we direct towards your heavens?
What must it be like,
to not hear from us at all,
as we turn to our own devices to escape what we endure?
What must it be like to watch your beloved
your named and claimed,
toss and turn,
struggle and want,
wrestle our way into more precarious positions?
How is it that you manage to cling to us,
to hold us so tightly,
when we forget to look your way at all?
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.
We are grateful when our thanksgiving is easy,
and we are grateful,
that you love us while it’s not.
That you hear us through our storms,
that you shelter us inside our beasts,
that you endure with us,
that you endure us.
We don’t understand it God,
so we offer up our gratitude now,
for all the times we have missed it,
for all the times we know it will be more difficult.
So for your mercy that surpassing our understanding,
for your grace that surrounds us despite ourselves,
thank you, holy God.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.
We practice our gratitude,
that you might help put praises on our lips,
even in the midst of storms.
For it is for such times that you have taught us to pray,
you gave us words to practice when it is easy,
so we might have something to mutter when it gets hard,
and so we pray together the prayer you taught us, saying…
Our Father…