Lent: day 35 devotion

intercession: an interposing or pleading on behalf of another person.
a prayer to God on behalf of another. 

Write an intercessory prayer and send it to someone that needs your attention and your prayer today.

The wilderness is full of competing voices for attention that your whisper, O Lord, is often drowned out even to the most discerning ears. The winds, earthquakes, fires, and floods that are real, metaphorical, and meme dampen the heart, ear, and humanity. Today, I pray for the devout, the lukewarm, the skeptic, and the non-believer.

There is plenty of evidence perpetrated by the religious, in the name of the divine, for the non-believer to reference as the basis of their non-belief, distrust, or fear of someone who comes in the name of the lord. Give them eyes to see your image in the helpers. Give them the ears to hear your call to be known. Give them peace to do the next right thing.

There is plenty of evidence for the skeptic and lukewarm to simply stay on their current path. It is what it is. Some tragedy or crisis can shock the system to be more devout or move away. Give them the mind’s eye to mature in their beliefs and faith based actions when the world turns upside down or when activists challenge their perspective. Give them the ears to hear your call to be known. Give them peace to do the next right thing.

There is plenty of evidence for the devout to want to divorce the world or convict the world in the name of the divine. Give them the eyes and ears to sift tradition, dogmatic faith, and certainty about your kingdom on earth from your call and your voice to create a kingdom on earth in the name of the lord. Give them the ears to hear your call to be known. Give them peace to do the next right thing as G*d gives them to see or hear the right.

Divine presence.

Great spirit.

Theory of science.

Artisan of life.

Listen and act in our listening and action.

Amen.

Lent: day 34

What is your favorite thing about spring?

Nature finds a way. It finds a balance. The first lesson that Luke offers Rey in, The Last Jedi (2017) sums up spring, and the natural order, for me.

Luke: Breathe. Just breathe. Now reach out. What do you see? 
Rey: Light. Darkness. A balance. 
Luke: It’s so much bigger. What do you see? 
Rey: The island. Life. Death and decay, that feeds new life. Warmth. Cold. Peace. Violence. 

Luke: And between it all? 
Rey: Balance and energy. A force. 

Luke: And inside you? 
Rey: Inside me, that same force.

Luke: And this is the lesson. That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity. Can you feel that?

Rey: There’s something else beneath the island. A place. A dark place.

Luke: Balance. Powerful light, powerful darkness.

Rey: It’s cold. It’s calling me.

Luke: Resist it. You went straight to the dark.
Rey: That place was trying to show me something.

Luke:  It offered something you needed. And you didn’t even try to stop yourself.

Rian Johnson, George Lucas, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (Walt Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm). 2017.