Learn How to Engage

God...

Thank You...that my head is screwed on straight. Thank you for giving me the ability to get along really well with people at work. Thank you for helping me keep a positive attitude, even when it doesn't make sense.

Help me...know how to handle challenging relationships at work. Help me learn how to engage in life more fully. Help me know what sort of housing situation to pursue in the spring.

Shane, I love you...I love how you're clean on the inside. I love how you size up situations accurately. I love it when you have those moments of awareness to think about me.

I'm sorry...for dwelling on a trouble spot at work; it's just not worth it.

Be with me...as I continue to walk forward at work, in life in general.

What Kind Of Soup Is It?

God...

Thank You...for the enjoyment I often feel at work--talking to people, untying knots, making decisions. Thanks for calmness and perspective; you're why I have a clear head (most of the time.) Thanks for the consistency of the two men in the class at City Rescue Mission. I know you've put them in my life for a blessing; thank you for drawing us together.

Help me...discern your current movement in my life. I sense you starting to stir the pot a bit, but I don't really know what kind of soup it is yet. Help my blind spots get exposed.

Shane, I love you...I love how open you are to me; I like living in your house.

I'm sorry...for being an inpatient jerk on the Broadway Extension this morning. I'm sorry for loosing perspective at the end of the day at work, for wigging over an insignificant thing. Both of these things show how I've got such a selfish, it's-all-about-me streak. I'm sorry for that.

Be with me...yes...be with me.

Nothing Too Earth Shattering

God...

Thank You...for a full and challenging day at work. It was fun to be in problem solving mode. Thanks for the surprise e-mail from a new friend.

Help me...learn how to encourage and build up my staff more. Help me find a unique living-in-community situation. Help me remain calm when situations tense up at work. Help me to learn to speak confidently yet calmly at all times.

Shane, I love you...that you don't take your work too seriously. I love how you take care of things thoroughly. You have integrity.

I'm sorry...for getting a little too riled up during all the fire-fighting today.

Be with me...in my awareness of each and every moment.

Be With Me As I Wait

God...

Thank You...for the rich variety of things I was involved with at work. I kinda gritched about it--but I really liked it. Again, more laughter. Thank you for helping me see the absurdities in life and helping me to laugh at them, rather than wig out about them. Thanks for perspective. And most of all, thanks for my friends at AA. What a gift those men are to me!

Help me...find my niche. Help me not always feel like a square peg in a round hole; help me fit somewhere! Help me get out of myself and in to other people's lives in a healthy way. Help me disentangle from the whacked-out thinking I inherited from my family.

Shane, I love you...You're more ok to me than you can imagine. I truly take deep delight in you; I want you to know this more and more.

I'm sorry...for getting riled up at the jackass at work.

Be with me...as you unfold my life-in-you. I usually want to rush things. Be with me as I wait.

Don't Settle

God...

Thank You...for the comfort of the men's honesty this morning at breakfast. Thank you that today was truly restful. Thank you for more fully redeeming my relationship with my parents.

Help me...find a focus for all the stuff I've been reading, especially those things having to do with community. Help me hear your voice leading me, even when the voices of people may rise to drown you out. Help me hear you and follow your leading.

Shane, I love you...I love that you're willing to go against the grain, even when you're not sure what the implications of this are. I love that you trust me.

I'm sorry...that your church is so messy and divided up. I'm sorry that as your people, we've placed more value on the things that divide us as your people, rather than simply being united around you. I'm sorry that I'm caught up in the middle of this travesty.

Be with me...as I seek ways to live out community the way you want me to. Be with me when I'm tempted to take the easy way out and settle for the "norm."

A Full Yet Restful Day

God...

Thank You...for a full yet restful day. Thank you for the long, rich conversation with my friend at breakfast. Thank you for the spontaneous dinner with my family.

Help me...wait to hear your Word to me. Help me connect wherever I need to connect. Help me not connect where I don't need to connect. Help me have wisdom to know where to spend my energies. Help me know what to do and when to do it. Help me be ok with where I'm at right now in life.

Shane, I love you...I love your openness to diverse people and ways of thinking. I love your willingness to seek to understand people who believe differently than you do. I love your stability of thought and your calmness.

I'm sorry...for projecting my struggles onto my sister. I felt like a twit for assuming that she struggles with the same things with which I struggle.

Be with me...during the SLOW, SLOW, SLOW process of having my roots grow downward.

I Feel Your Support

God...

Thank You...that on a rather hum-drum day like today, I feel your support. No spiritual fireworks or anything. Just your "being there" support.

Help me...give you room to be creative in and through me. Help me not be locked in by the known; help me be open to possibilities.

Shane, I love you...You are aware, watching. I really like that about you. My heart is so toward you, Shane. I wish you could feel how much love I have for you.

I'm sorry...for my loose lips at work. I'm also sorry that my eating and exercising (or lack thereof) has gone to pot.

Be with me...as I meet with my friend for breakfast and as I investigate the new rooming possibility.

Amen.