Worship Words

My Cup Runneth Over

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I went to a funeral. Given my work as a hospice chaplain and years spent working in churches, I would guess I attend many more funerals than the average person. I went to this funeral not because I was leading the service. I went because I wanted to hear that this person was at peace. I needed to hear the familiar words of comfort.

This person’s story is not mine to tell as happens in the work I do. I will share that I have never met someone before who so wanted to believe that God loved him and had forgiven him for “everything”. He wanted to believe and could not fathom despite all reassurances that God loved him and God forgave him. So together we wrestled with these big concepts. We prayed together. I brought him communion. He said he trusted in God’s love. And on my next visit, the same questions came up.

Over our time together, there were moments of peace for him. He felt like he had a purpose and could understand God’s plan for this time in his life. And then those doubts would creep in again. He would ask me to pray saying he didn’t know if he could say the right words. So I would pray and reassure him that there are no right words and God doesn’t ask for words at all.

The last time I saw him I reminded him of our conversations and God’s love and forgiveness. I let him know that God was ready to receive him and he could ask God all the questions with which we had wrestled.

I went to his funeral to hear the words of peace he had so longed to believe. And in the 23rd Psalm, I heard “my cup runneth over”. This image of his cup running over was what I needed. I felt like the amazing abundance of God’s goodness which was hard for him to comprehend here on earth was now real and those words were the reassurance I needed to hear.

Faithful One, open up our awareness so we may realize the ways you communicate with us. You take our doubts and show us your goodness. You take our worries and provide us comfort. You take our sadness and sit with us where we are. When we pay attention, you remind us that our cups runneth over. Amen.

I’m So Excited! A Prayer for those times you are too excited to sleep

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Does this ever happen to you? A long awaited good thing is about to occur. You want and need sleep. If sleep comes, it might be in short bursts. Each time you look at the clock you wonder why you are awake again. The internet is full of explanations for why and what to do about it. Search out those answers if you are interested.

Here’s my story. The alarm is set for 5:30 am to catch a flight to see my family who I last saw 8 months ago. To say I am excited is an understatement! I have done all the things to go to sleep and I keep waking up. So, while I try to go back to sleep for the twentieth time, here is the prayer I prayed.

God of All Good Things, You created us in your image and so wonderfully. In the middle of the night, I wonder why you didn’t give us an off switch. Just a simple way to slow our swirling thoughts and excitement down for a bit for sleep before a big, big day. I’m not telling the Creator of All how we should have been made. Just wondering how to get a little rest before my alarm goes off in two hours and fifteen minutes. Just wondering and wondering. Thank you for the ability to feel so much excitement that we can’t sleep. Thank you for long awaited reunions and other joyous celebrations that have us awake as we count down the minutes until we can get started on the big event. Thank you for creating us not as robots and instead as beings filled with emotions too big to be contained by sleep. As I close my eyes to try again to sleep, grant me rest, Holy One, and if good rest doesn’t come before my alarm then grant me the energy to enjoy the big day tomorrow. Big yawn. Amen.

Seeing these smiles makes it so worth it.

A Prayer for a New Month

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I love the feeling of crisp new notebook. Clean pages ready for me to scribble all over. I am trying to look at each new month in much the same way. New opportunities waiting for me. What will this month hold? Good days and hard days. Laughter and tears. Probably some weather that I don’t love. And so many opportunities.

God of Endless Possibilities! We begin a new month today filled with promise. We bring to this new month all that we are-our joys and sorrows, our dreams and failures, our memories of the past and our wishes for the future. All of this is present as this new month begins. Whatever this month holds, we are grateful to know we do not walk this way alone. You are present with us. You guide us if we only pay attention. You support us when we relax enough to be supported. You love when we seem most and least lovable. As this new month begins, we open ourselves to the possibility of goodness in our lives and goodness to share with others. Open us to receive what is to come. Amen.

Praying Through Disappointment

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Ugh! That has been my word of the week. I had great plans which got sidetracked by that which has been sidetracking many of our plans for the past two years. Everyone is fine. We are pivoting and making new plans.

I know I am not alone in this. Every single person I have talked to today had questions about how to know what is the right thing to do, and when is it safe to do this, and how do I know? So many questions with no easy, right answers. The only right answer for me was to create a prayer for times of disappointment. When you need this prayer, I invite you to pray with me.

Why, God? Why? I don’t even have the words to express my disappointment. I am sad and might cry. I am mad and would like to use up some of this angry energy in a productive manner. I don’t want to make a plan b, plan c, and plan d and throw them all out the window when plans must change again. I want to stop being so disappointed with how things are going in my community and my country. Truthfully, God, I wanted to be done with COVID by now and would like to be living in life after COVID. We all know that isn’t our reality, and so I hand over to you one more big bag of disappointment. Add it to the pile! I know you will hand me back some patience, a glimmer of hope, and so much love as you see this pain and hurt too. So with my next deep breath, I will hold tightly to the hope and feel surrounded by your love. I will remain patient for different days ahead and know that this disappointment won’t last forever. Amen.

Psalm 19 Responsive Reading

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This is a responsive reading with parts 1 and 2 that could be read with two people or a congregation and leader. The words of the Psalm are in quotation marks. Psalm 19:1-2,7-10, 14 is used.

1-“The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.”

2-Listen! Do you hear? Listen to nature informing us about the God of all creation. Listen!

1-When should we listen? When should we expect to hear good news?

2-“Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.”

1-“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;”

2-Revive us, God. Breathe new life into our weary bodies.

1-Explain to us again your way. We want to follow you, and we need your help.

2-“the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;”

1-“the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever, the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

2-We delight in you, Gracious God, and know you instruct us in the way to life.

1-“More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.”

2-You paint a beautiful picture of how much we should want to follow you. 

1- “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Amen.

2-“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Amen.

All Saints’ Sunday-Special Edition for when you are remembering a loved one who has died this year.

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I have long loved the celebration of the saints in our churches. It is a Sunday when we remember that we are not the first and we will not be the last in this lineage of believers. This year I am wondering how to celebrate and honor this day when one of the saints who joined the church triumphant this year was my mother. All of the rituals I have done in the past years do not feel like enough to remember the one who carried me inside her for nine months and then carried me in her arms and held me in her heart from before my first breath until her last breath. How do I honor her memory on this day? As I reflected on this question, I was reminded that each of the saints I have honored over the years was someone’s beloved family member or friend or neighbor or parent or grandparent or sibling. The beauty of this day is we take time to remember and give thanks for lives lived as God’s beloved children. My mother would not want a big fanfare today (nor any day as fanfares were not her thing). So today, I will do as I do each time this holy day comes, I will light candles and remember those I love who are no longer here on earth. I will remember and give thanks.

Here is the prayer I will use as I name them today. Holy One, you know us by name and you call us your children. Today on this All Saints’ Day we remember and give thanks for __________ (name them by name and light a candle for your loved ones). We miss them. And they live on in us. We remember the lessons they taught us. We give thanks for hugs and meals shared. We know their love for you which we heard in their words and saw in their actions. We can see them cheering us on when we succeed and crying with us when the way is hard. We know they are with you. We know that for each of them pain and sorrow have ceased and they are at peace. Gracious God, be with us in whatever emotions this day brings. Today, we give thanks and we remember all of the saints who from their labors rest. As the saints lived in faith, we too will continue to follow you, Good Shepherd. Lead on. Amen.

My sister, my mother, and I on January 31, 2021.

A Prayer for Times of Frustration!

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I have been working on a responsive reading based on a psalm to share in this space. Numerous times technology has failed me or I have failed. I wanted to share that today and lost all my formatting again, so instead I share this prayer for times of frustration.

God, all I can do in this moment is take a big, deep breath and step away. Continuing to work on what is before me will only lead to more frustration. So, I breath and step and breath and step, until I am far away enough to gain some room to move and some perspective. I am passing my frustration on to you, Compassionate One, knowing you can handle what I cannot. Hold this in your loving hands until I am ready to take it back to continue this task-big or small. Thank you for being my teammate and support through all the frustrations in life. Having handed it off to you, I can feel my shoulders lowering and the tension easing and my breath returning to a normal rhythm. Thank you, Holy One, for reminding us to care for ourselves in the midst of all that must be done. Walk with us today and everyday. Amen.

Peaceful Christmas!

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Wherever you find yourself this Christmas, I wish you a very peaceful Christmas.

Whatever emotions you are feeling this season, I hope you find moments of peace this Christmas.

However you are observing this season, I pray you know you are loved this Christmas.

Whether we feel prepared or not, the Christ child is being born anew in this world. “And the weary world rejoices!”

May the hope, peace, joy, and love of Advent be with you as we welcome Christ into our lives again!

Getting Through December

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We are halfway through the month of December. When I was younger, December was a month full of joy, happiness, and expectations. December meant time with relatives, once a year traditions, good food, and so much love. This wasn’t the same for everyone even when they were young. And as I have aged, I have become more aware of the range of emotions that the month of December stirs up for people. For some, December is a month filled with grief and sadness and regret and loneliness. For some, December is a time of not being able to live up to expectations. For some, December doesn’t bring the peace they long to find.

A song that sums up for me the less discussed feelings of this month is Over the Rhine’s “If We Make It Through December”-“If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be alright I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine”


I invite you to keep this idea in your mind as you move about the next half of the month. For so many this month won’t look like they have hoped-families may be celebrating via Zoom instead of together, empty seats will remind us of the loved ones who are no longer with us, finances may be tighter than other years, fears of illness may be causing additional stress, and so many other stresses and worries and fears and concerns and possibilities may be keeping people up at night. And if none of this is true for you, it is true for someone you know and love.

So as much as I would love to end with some cheerful words to made everything work out perfectly like the end of a perfectly scripted Hallmark movie (that was not an attack on Hallmark movies which bring much joy to so many), I am going to ask us to do the hard work. I am going to encourage you to sit with the hard feelings and not rush past them. When this month doesn’t meet your expectations, live in that feeling for awhile. When you are missing your loved ones, focus on the memories for a bit and allow yourself to be sad or cry or miss them. When you can’t imagine how things will work out, be angry and live in the heartbreak. And when you are ready, reach out to someone and share how you are feeling, write your feelings down, say out loud that the month of December is hard for you. If none of what you have read mirrors the way you have ever felt in December, I encourage you to be on the look out for those for whom these words ring true. They need you this month.

Hear again the words of the song as our benediction.

“If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be alright I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine” Amen!

Giving Thanks

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We can all agree that this Thanksgiving is not like ones we have known in the past. I am not going to tell you how to celebrate this year as you can find many other places and people who have shared information about what are the best choices to make for the holidays.

Instead I want you to be aware of your emotions as you navigate the coming days.

What are you grieving? Write or verbalize those traditions that are not happening for you this year and how you feel about these changes.

Where are you giving thanks? Write or verbalize the people, places, things for which you are giving thanks today.

Where are you finding joy? Write or verbalize the current times you feel joy or memories that bring you joy.

Where are you having moments of peace? Write or verbalize when you feel peace and allow yourself to linger in your feelings of peace.

Let yourself feel the emotions that this reflection brings up. Cry, laugh, scream, smile, and do what you need to do as you live with the emotions that come up this holiday.