A (Mostly Answered) Prayer of Hope and Lament During COVID
What’s on your list? What were you longing for? What has been returned and what is yet to be returned?
I’m beginning to tap into the journal entries I’ve written over the last three years. Here is a prayer from April 16, 2021. I’ve put checkmarks beside the ones I’ve experienced since that time.
✓ I want to see my friends and hear their laughter.
✓ I want to get on a plane and fly somewhere. (Bolivia, Winnipeg, Belize, Mexico)
✓ I want to sit in an airport and watch people.
✓ I want to exit a plane and feel the warm tropical breeze on my face.
✓ I want to sleep in a hotel that is far below North American standards and swim in the pool in the courtyard. (Partial: the hotel didn’t have a pool.)
✓ I want to sit in a Starbucks in Winnipeg.
I want to preach behind another church’s pulpit. (I haven’t done this yet but I have three coming up soon.)
✓ I want to hit a ball and then pitch that same ball.
✓ I want to sit in a restaurant for breakfast.
I want to see how many people we can host at one time. (We haven’t tested the limits on this one yet but we will.)
✓ I want our island to be full of food and our house to be full of loud conversations.
✓ I want to teach a class and make/help people think.
✓ I want to linger long and talk after church.
I want to see the west coast, to stand and stare at the mountains. (We chose the east coast instead and it was amazing, but west coast - we’re still coming for you!)
✓ I want to walk on a white sand beach without a care in the world.
I want to run again. (I’ll need a miracle so I’m asking for one.)
✓ I want to feel rested.
✓ I want to go to Port Huron and get a little nervous about crossing the border for no reason.
✓ I want to baptize people again at Springwater. (Not at Springwater yet, but I have done numerous baptisms.)
✓ I want to walk through the mall and see people’s faces.
Lord,
Please return to us all the good things that were lost and lavish on us new things that are good. I need a hopeful future. It seems I need a hopeful immediate future in addition to the glorious future you have promised for eternity.
If I ask and you do not provide, I will be content. At least I will seek to be content.
But right now I ask you to restore all that we lost, but also to draw our attention to all that you have provided and all that you will yet provide, and to make us thankful for it all.
AMEN.
What’s on your list? What were you longing for? What has been returned and what is yet to be returned?
Note: I’m going to try something new here. Below is a QR code to a WhatsApp group that you can join. Via this group, I will send links to my posts. Entering comments on a page or a site can be intimidating, I get it, so via this group, you will also have an opportunity to send comments or messages or questions to me directly.
Let’s give it a try. To get started, simply click the graphic or scan the QR code below.