Our God who calls us to reflect on who we are and why we are here: This morning, we come together in liminal space and time as we near the half-way point of our legislative session. We marvel at weeks and months that have passed while simultaneously feeling the anxiety of the layers of unfinished business that loom in front of us. We find ourselves experiencing the discomfort of the in-between – feeling the pressure of what is yet to come while realizing what has already come to pass.
In a world that all too often demands unyielding perfection from its leaders, there is little, if any, margin for error. Words of condemnation come easy in political parlance. But as hard as we are on our colleagues, we are even more merciless on ourselves. Those who have been chosen to serve feel the burden of answering the clarion call of the people: to make a difference; to change the unchangeable; to fix the flaws in our laws, fate of our state and the holes in our souls. And yet, the realities of time and space force us to acknowledge that we cannot complete every task. We feel a sense of frustration and sometimes those closest to us bear the burdens of our feelings of incompleteness and insecurity.
And so we pray:
Dear God, You created us with imperfections. Watch over all who serve in this chamber: the legislators and the lawyers, the captains and clerks; the interns and the innovators. Give all of them the strength to pursue the task of governance, and the patience to accept that there is always more to accomplish than is humanly possible. Protect the souls of your servants who are exposed to the harshness to human expectation. Help them to support one another – even in the heat of debate and disagreement. Let any conflict that arises be for the sake of the greater good and teach us to quickly forgive and forget the sting of slogans and slights that are thrown about in the messy process of crafting legislation. As we cross the threshold of the halfway and realize that the end of this session looms ever larger in the forefront of our consciousness, may every person here become reconciled to the sacred necessity for compromise and communion.
We thank You for the ability to make a difference O God. We see You in the passion of our colleagues. We feel you as we address the urgency of the unfinished. We pray for Your guidance as we seek Your presence in our daily lives. Help us to understand that our sacred task is to strive to make the lives of every resident of our great State of Colorado better because of our labor and debate. Then and only then will we be able to do Your holy work.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment