Opening Prayer for the Colorado House of Representatives on "Leap Day."

Our God who dwells on High.

Our God who walks in the street.

Our God whose voice rolls down like thunder.

Our God who we find in the doubts that plague us in the middle of the night.

Today is the 29^th of February. This day that only occurs every 4 years reminds us that, in our desire to find order in the chaos of the cosmos, we need to adjust our calendars so that we might continue to number our days in accordance with the seasons of the year. Time, as we understand it, is arbitrary. The years, months, days, minutes, and seconds that we use to track the passage of time are our own creation, not Yours. While we strive for consistency and absolute perfection in all that we do – we know that there are things that truly are out of our control. And so, we invent ways to adjust our lives to deal with inconsistencies and irregularities. If we did not add this one day every 4 years, we would be off kilter and our sense of normalcy would be disrupted.

On this day of deliberation – help these legislators to remember that the process of governing  - like our calendar -is imperfect. Let them find You – not in the absolute or categorical imperatives that draw lines in the ideological sands of partisanship; but rather in their doubts, in their questions, in their struggles to fulfill the needs of our community.  Help them to move one another and to be moved.  Open their hearts to the possible and the improbable.  Help them to find the human and the divine in their colleagues, their constituents and in themselves.

Help us all to stay balanced, O God.

Help us to find humor and banish hubris.

Give us – all of us – on this day of calendar correction – a moment of tranquility and transcendence so that we might rise above our ordinariness and glimpse the glory of Your greatness.

 Let us see it in ourselves.  Let us see it in these deliberations.  Let us see it in the imbalance that reminds us of our mortality – and the beauty that comes from imperfection.

Then, and only then, will we merit the gifts You have bestowed upon us.

May this day bring change.

May this day bring hope.

May this day bring love.

 AMEN