Imagine What Is Behind That Wall
Just a copy of Today's Prayer (June 27) from the Church of Scotland's Pray Now site. I love the Prayer Activity.
1 Peter 1:3
There, between the moment I call ‘now’,
and the moment that comes next,
sits hope,
between the days whose weight has borne down on us,
in lack of movement, lack of change,
the lumpen oppression of the ‘aye been’
and the sheer terrorism of ‘and what’s going to change?’ –
there hope sits.
For Hope is the possibility that should not be,
that to this eternal, hopeless ‘now’
linked by steel chains to what was, and what shall be,
‘same old same old ...’
there is a beyond.
Whether we recognise it or not, Lord,
hope is the mark of your sovereignty, and our liberation.
Hope is your gift.
There,
between the faith that is trust,
and the love that is self-giving,
sits hope:
this trust, with only God for ground,
that things shall be different, and all things shall be new.
this knowing we are loved, that lets us love;
this knowing-without-seeing of what God is like;
not fully, but in part.
enough ... to be getting on with...
Now sit before it, and still yourself. Look at the wall. Take in its features. Dwell on its solidity. Touch it, if you wish, and feel its reality, its actuality. Visualise what is on the other side of the wall. Do so in detail. Look again at the wall, and grasp the fact that there is something beyond this. You may wish now to use one of the scripture passages above. How do they relate to the realisation that there is a ‘beyond’ to the human situations they invoke?
Blessing O Lord, this day keep us without sin.
Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us.
Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us:
as we have hoped in you.
O Lord, in you have I hoped:
let me never be confounded.
(Te Deum)
Hope
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...1 Peter 1:3
Prayer
There!There, between the moment I call ‘now’,
and the moment that comes next,
sits hope,
between the days whose weight has borne down on us,
in lack of movement, lack of change,
the lumpen oppression of the ‘aye been’
and the sheer terrorism of ‘and what’s going to change?’ –
there hope sits.
For Hope is the possibility that should not be,
that to this eternal, hopeless ‘now’
linked by steel chains to what was, and what shall be,
‘same old same old ...’
there is a beyond.
Whether we recognise it or not, Lord,
hope is the mark of your sovereignty, and our liberation.
Hope is your gift.
There,
between the faith that is trust,
and the love that is self-giving,
sits hope:
this trust, with only God for ground,
that things shall be different, and all things shall be new.
this knowing we are loved, that lets us love;
this knowing-without-seeing of what God is like;
not fully, but in part.
enough ... to be getting on with...
Prayer activity
Sit in front of a wall in your home, or wherever you are, on the other side of which there is a space – a room, or a corridor – which you know well enough to visualise clearly. The important thing is the wall, and the known space on the other side of it. It is good if the wall is as plain as possible, but not absolutely necessary.Now sit before it, and still yourself. Look at the wall. Take in its features. Dwell on its solidity. Touch it, if you wish, and feel its reality, its actuality. Visualise what is on the other side of the wall. Do so in detail. Look again at the wall, and grasp the fact that there is something beyond this. You may wish now to use one of the scripture passages above. How do they relate to the realisation that there is a ‘beyond’ to the human situations they invoke?
Blessing O Lord, this day keep us without sin.
Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us.
Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us:
as we have hoped in you.
O Lord, in you have I hoped:
let me never be confounded.
(Te Deum)
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