A Prayer

We had torrential rains in Fitzgerald yesterday. Our guest speaker this morning was Dr. Bill Hammond, a medical doctor and member of our church who has recently been declared cancer-free after a grueling three-year battle with pancreatic cancer; he is still undergoing chemotherapy.

This is the morning prayer that I prayed:

O God,

After the storm, the quiet.
After the chaos, the peace.
After the deluge, the calm.

It is that way with the weather; it is that way with us.

We praise you because after the storm, after the chaos, after the deluge—there is this day: a day of beauty, a day of blue sky, a day of green grass, a day of clean air.

We praise you because after the storm, the chaos, the deluge in our lives—there is so often the day of beauty, of health, of vitality, indeed, the day of new life.

But Lord, there are those for whom the storm, the chaos, and the deluge of the weather are having a deep and lasting impact. They need your help—they need our help.

And Lord, there are those for whom the storm, the chaos, and the deluge of their lives are still raging and may keep raging until the end—for them (and for some of us), Lord, we ask for new life as well; we ask for grace and peace and mercy and joy and love that they will know just as surely as they would had the storm passed them by.

In the name of Jesus who calmed the sea and who defeated death we pray,

Amen.