HOPE FOR THE BROKEN

When we face difficult situations as Christians, we can take comfort in the words of Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah wrote this letter to the Jews exiled in Babylon. As we read this passage, we may notice that Jeremiah reminds the people that God does not promise to rescue them immediately from suffering but has a plan for each person. That plan will always lead to hope. This is true for each of us, too. The following prayer has been penned in response to this passage and promise.

Lord Almighty, you are our God in the midst of life,
in good times and in hard times,
in beauty and in disarray,
in success and in failure, in life and in death.
Thank you.

Thank you that you know our names,
that you care about our story,
and that you invite us to make our home in you.

Thank you most of all, on this day,
that you take the broken pieces of our hearts
and weave them together to make art,
in ways we cannot now imagine.

Even so, Lord, empower our imaginations,
give us glimpses of the possible,
even when everything around us feels decidedly the opposite.
And help us to begin...always, to begin...with gratitude.

THANK YOU, GOD

Thank You for today,
for safety through the storm,
for comfort in grief,
for inspiration from the Word.

Thank you for friends,
for beautiful spaces in which to sit,
for music that stirs our hearts and lifts our spirits.

Thank You for faithful leaders
who try to listen well to the movement of your Spirit
and who hang onto you when it gets murky out there.

Thank You for gray heads,
and newborn baby heads,
for the laughter of children,
and the tears of caring adults,
for the sturdy curiosity of adolescents,
and for the burgeoning maturity of college students.

Thank You for the connections we enjoy today,
in the here and now, and for the communion of saints,
all those who have moved ahead of us to life eternal.

Special thanks today for the multiple beauties of divine and human creation
all around us in this beat-up-but-not-defeated place we call home.

GOD OF THE BROKEN BEAUTIFUL

O God of the Broken Beautiful, You take the most common,
ordinary things and transform them into nourishment for body and soul.
Thank You for feeding us well.

We began with gratitude, Lord,
but we need to also make space for lament today.
Our hearts are broken,
We are people who always hold some kind of pain,
even as we smile and nod.
For some, the pain comes from the loss of loved ones;
for some, it comes from dealing with our own illness.
For others, it is job loss or financial insecurity,
or troubled relationships.
Many of us wrestle with hard questions about faith or about the future.

Help us to rest in your healing power and in Your forgiveness.
Teach us the truth of Jeremiah—that there is life to be lived,
there is beauty to be found,
even though we may feel overwhelmed,
defeated or abandoned.
Even in exile, You are here,
the God who can be found.
Help us, dear God, to make our home in You.
Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• What do you notice as a common theme throughout this prayer?
• To which phrase do you most relate today?
• Write your own prayer in response to Jeremiah 29 (or perhaps start with verses 11-13).