O ever-present God, in whom we live and move and have our being: Sometimes we feel lost. We don’t know where we are or where we are going. Sometimes, it seems, we don’t even know who we are. We feel as if You are distant – or not there at all.
Remind us, Eternal One, as we gather together at this hour and in this place that we designate as holy, that it is not You who loses us, but we who lose you. You have always been there and always will be. But we lose You in the busy-ness of our lives – when we forget to stop and listen for Your ever-present call. We lose You in pettiness – when we fight for something not worth fighting for. We lose You in distraction – in television, in the computer, in polite chatter. We lose You in coldness of heart – when we tend too obsessively to our own needs, our own emotions, and fail to extend ourselves in love – yes, to the stranger, but all too often even to those closest to us. Help us to know, on an increasingly deeper level, Comforter, that we are never lost to You and You need never be lost to us. Remind us, Loving One, all the numberless times we need reminding, that, as Jesus said, we need but knock to pass through the door to Your presence, that You stand with us. You are with us in the stillness, but, though we may not realize it, also amidst the turmoil of our frenetic lives. You are with us in the calm, but also in the conflict. You are with us when we embrace others in love, but also when we turn inward.
Help us to more fully realize that every hour is holy, not just the Sunday worship hour, and that every place is holy, not just the sanctuary of the church. We are never lost and we stand always in a holy place because You are the ground of our being. For in You we live and move and have our being. Amen.
by Deacon Dave Skidmore
2 Oct 2005