Here I Am! Open Our Minds, Equip Us, & Move Us

Calling Spirit,

In the quiet of this space,
quiet our minds & hearts.

In this moment,
help us to be present with you.

[TIME OF SILENCE]

We confess that when you call,
the noise of our televisions,
of our friends,
and of self-inflicted worries,
distract us.

Too often we don’t hear,
or we don’t like what we hear,
or don’t want to understand.

Break through our sleeping pills,

Break through our desire for peace at all costs.

Break through with your message for our lives.

Cause us to respond, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

[TIME OF SILENCE]

The world we remember,
is crumbling.

We yearn for peace,
we beg for one who will fix it,
without requiring us to change.

We yearn for a world,
that doesn’t need our help,
that doesn’t need us,
to be your hands & hearts.

We ask you to fix it:
the shootings of black men &
women,
the politicians who are self-serving,
the hungry, the children, and the
economic injustice.

We beg you to fix it,
for we are old.

We are tired.
We don’t want to do it.
We don’t know how to do it.

[TIME OF SILENCE]

And still you call us in the night,
“Samuel, Samuel, SAMUEL!”

Equip us.
Provide us with an Eli,
with a caretaker who will help us
recognize your voice.

Open our minds.
Make us into an Eli
who will listen to the hard truth,
and accept it, helping Samuel.

Equip us and move us,
Provide us with the gifts needed,
as you did with the boy prophet,
the one who listened in the night.

[TIME OF SILENCE]

In the name of the One who came to bring hope to the widow,
to the orphan,
to the immigrant,
to the sick,
to the poor,
to the imprisoned…

In the name of the One who calls,
to us in the night,
“follow me.”

Amen.