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Stumbled upon a book/pamphlet at the library book sale called Duty by the famous Episcopalian Bishop Phillips Brooks.  It includes this quote which I thought worth passing along:

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.  Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.

I wanted to share this wonderful prayer I heard at this morning’s service by our associate pastor Amy Aspey:

Just like your disciples long ago, we peer into the tombs of our hearts.  So many things fill our inner tombs-broken relationships, failed attempts at self-improvement, shame, anger, missed opportunities, debilitating grief. Lord, some pieces of ourselves feel like they have been dead forever and other things so affect our living that although we breathe, we feel dead within. We lift up to you all that is within us.

When those who came to Your tomb looked within, they two men in dazzling clothes, but couldn’t find you. So often, we too, go through difficult times and can’t find you. Perhaps, we, too, are looking in the wrong places. You are always with us, but often in ways that defy our expectations. Just as the tomb couldn’t limit You; neither can we. Open our minds, ears, eyes, and hearts to all the ways that you dwell in our midst.

Lord, there is no tomb that You can not break through, including the tombs in our hearts. May we experience Your resurrection this year, inside out. May we experience life in places that we thought were dead. May we experience Your reconciliation in relationships that we thought were damaged forever. May we find Your peace in things that once gave us anxiety. May we experience healing in the places that have been hurting for too long. May we see your presence in all the times that we always thought we were alone.

As we celebrate the empty tomb, we rejoice that death does not have the final victory, but rather that life, love, and goodness prevail. Lord, break open our lives to receive all the love, forgiveness and freedom that You so freely give. May we allow Your resurrection make a difference in how we live. May we forever live in hope of all that is yet to be.

I prayed in that shadowed chapel until there were no words. I prayed beyond the words, into the silence. The silence is what we fear, the silence when the presence of God can neither be denied nor deflected with vain prayers and empty mumblings. I wept into that silence. I laid myself bare before it. I realized how little I know about prayer.

It’s easy to see why so many of us — Christians and pagans alike — spend lifetimes running from the living God, our hands stopping our ears, our mouths babbling prayers or blasphemies, all in an effort to avoid the great silence where God speaks to man. That silence is a fearful place, but there is love there, the great love of a parent. There is mercy too, and strength for the uncompleted race.

Times are hard, it’s a hard time
But everybody knows all about hard times.
The thing is, what are you gonna do?
Well, you cry and try to muscle through
Try to rearrange your stuff
But when the wounds are deep enough,
It’s all that we can bear,
We wrap ourselves in prayer.