大象传媒

Good morning.

There鈥檚 doing what we do for our day job for people with whom we have a professional relationship, and then there鈥檚 doing it every so often by special request for those with whom we鈥檙e more closely acquainted. I鈥檝e met people from all sorts of walks of life who testify to a raising of stakes and a rising of stress when it鈥檚 not the general public requiring their services but their nearest and dearest. I鈥檇 have to say: me too. Leading worship, preaching and, perhaps especially praying all feel different when they involve close friends and family.

It simply never entered my mind growing up, that I would find myself with a hands-on role in the weddings, baptisms and funerals of my loved ones. But what鈥檚 taken most getting used to, and I鈥檓 not there yet, are those less formal and more intimate kith and kin moments when I鈥檝e been called on without warning to give thanks or say a grace or invoke a blessing or even to pray a commendation for someone nearing death. Both the pleasure and the pain of course lie in them knowing me and me knowing them.

But while my first instinct has often been not to let that make a difference, far better those times when it has, when a sharing of experiences, memories and feelings has been acknowledged, so that my spoken prayer of gratitude, petition can be allowed to thread its way through the lives we鈥檝e lived in common to reach God with an emotion and authenticity that leaves words far behind.

God of relationships: it鈥檚 in our loves and losses, our disclosures and discoveries that we know others and are known ourselves. Lord never let us settle for prayer that is less than open, real and unadorned.

Amen