Prayers of the People - Feb. 21

Yesterday during worship we experienced a momentary power disruption which caused one of the devices we use for our live stream to reboot. This caused the stream to freeze for several minutes right at the end of David's Time for Reflection and through most of Jan's Prayers of the People. (It also happened again during the postlude, for those of you who were still watching.) It's always frustrating when something like this happens, but it was especially so yesterday because the prayer that Jan wrote and prayed was so lovely. So I asked her to send it to me and I am posting it below. I hope that you will take time to pray this prayer with her at some point this week.

PT

As we come together in prayer, I would bring your attention to the fact that the season of Love – Valentine's Day, and the season of Lent – Self Reflection are back to back, next door to each other. So may our time of reflection focus on Love as we go through this journey toward Easter and the season of Hope.

Creator God,

We are finding it very difficult at the moment to look toward the coming season of Hope. There is so much negativity in our world that our hearts ache with the burden of it all. We sit and we ponder, we argue and we try to listen, we kneel and we pray, we see and we ignore and the agony continues.

We come together today to pray for our world, for the leaders and those behind the scenes who exert influence, for the stricken and hungry, the tired and the sick and for those who feel forgotten. We ask for the world to feel your presence, to realize that Love is the answer today and everyday. And may we love and heal our planet as well as ourselves.

We pray for our country where there is so much division and anger. We pray for our own leaders who make decisions that impact us all. We ask that compromise be a word of hope and not one of dissension. We pray for those who have been impacted by the storms and extreme weather that has passed over so much of our country. May they receive the help that they need and may those in power find ways to assure the people that they are working for the good of all.

We pray for our community where we are grieving the loss of 3 teen-agers who have been taken down in the prime of their lives. We struggle with these random acts of violence and wonder why random acts of kindness cannot be the norm. We ache with their parents as they adjust to this loss of hope for a better future that these kids were poised to explore. Help us to know how we can make a difference, how we can contribute to the solution and even how we can pray.

We pray for our own families as we wonder if our kids are next, as we wonder if Covid will take more lives that we know, as we wonder how we are to go on in this swirl of negativity.

We are told that there is hope, that there is light, that there is redemption. Help us to find it. Aid us in our Lenten journey to reflect on our own path, to find ways to reach out and to be that Christ like example that we long for in others. Bring us Hope. Bring us Love. Bring us Redemption.

Amen.