Passing Our Prayers

Good morning…

A friend sent me beautiful words shared by her church on Sunday. Instead of the traditional “Passing the Peace” portion of worship, during this season of social distancing her church family is developing a new habit called “Passing Our Prayers.”

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Today’s prayer comes from Elizabeth Shows Caffey:

Now I say to you in conclusion,
life is hard,
at times as hard as crucible steel. (Mmm)
It has its bleak and difficult moments.
Like the ever-flowing waters of the river,
life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah)
Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons,
life has the soothing warmth of its summers
and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah)
But if one will hold on,
he will discover that God walks with him, (Yeah. Well)
and that God is able (Yeah) to lift you from the fatigue of despair
to the buoyancy of hope
and transform dark and desolate valleys
into sunlit paths of inner peace. (Mmm)

Eulogy for the Martyred Children (1963)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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The date above grabs my attention. I was born in 1963, the same year Dr. King shared these words, eulogizing martyred children. I google “martyred children in 1963” and I learned the details. If you have just two minutes to listen to the powerful voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. honoring the lives of four young girls lost in the bombing of a Birmingham church, the video below is certainly worth your while.

There are bleak and difficult moments for every passing generation. Yet if we will hold on, the darkness will reveal the ever-presence of the God who walks with us. Empowered by the same Holy Spirit raising Jesus from the dead, God is able to lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, morning by morning.

LORD, would You please transform our dark, desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace?

And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn…God in full view! (Psalm 84:5-7, MSG).

…Sue…