July 24, 2020
A daily prayer during this COVID-19 crisis
During these difficult days, members of the Granite District of the New England Conference are sharing a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week.
You are welcome to use these in worship or in your own devotions.
Today's Prayer
Being Alive – a Prayer Poem written by Reverend Shannon Diana Keeney
Inspired by Bible Verses from the Lectionary Romans 8:26-39 and also from Acts 20.7-12
You and I are no deity Our lives pass with astounding brevity Being Alive Is not dependent on our corporeal reality “Awake” is no byproduct of our innate humanity Being Alive Means knowing breathing and living are no synonymity Instead it is embracing endless choices, possibilities, and spontaneity Being Alive Is saying to the world “see Jesus in me” instead of living in mindless invisibility It’s letting the Spirit shake your soul into community blinding luminosity Being Alive Pushes us beyond our robotic & lethargic personality to becoming dreamers and doers grabbing days with vivacity Being Alive Is defying a day of anxiety stopping its perpetual fear captivity Instead it is standing up and saying “my hope has imperishability!” Being Alive Is knowing we live in dangerous times right here in the city But trusting we can overcome with God, caution, masks, and amity Being Alive Means thinking and supporting neighbors in this time of epidemicity Guiding your friends toward peace and serenity Being Alive Encourages us to embrace, even now, our divine right of creativity Not to succumb to cyber bullying, judgement, and societal negativity Being Alive Teaches us just because we have blessed mortality Doesn’t mean we inherit heavenly morality Being Alive Tells us God gives us a natural loving capacity But the world locks some from other opportunity and possibility Being Alive Asks you do you face the morning with privileged tranquility or rise up to shake the foundations of inequality Being Alive Challenges us to stop claiming deniability And realize we might have some serious culpability Being Alive Tells us our planet, words, and actions all have gravity Embracing God instead of hostility leads our actions into positivity Being Alive Is listening to the Good News as a source for our activity Hearing and having the Biblical stories shape us all clergy and laity Being Alive Can be us right now in our present entity All it takes is embracing faith with a little extra tenacity Being Alive Is knowing we are more than conquerors through him who offered us charity We are disciples serving a masters who cares with audacity Being Alive Is what I choose because I am convinced neither death, life, angels, rulers, or polity Powers, height, depth, or anything will separate me from my trinity.
Rev. Shannon Diana Keeney, First UMC Littleton, NH; Granite District