Welcome to Responding with Prayer,
An opportunity to respond to the complex everyday experiences that lift us up and bring us down.
My name is Jess.
I've struggled with attending to prayer.
I hope this little offering brings you closer to the Creator.
Today's meditation is on loneliness.
To start,
Let's take five big breaths.
Deep breathing has been studied and found to change how we engage stress in situations.
It is good for slowing down,
Preparing for prayer,
But also a good practice for all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.
So feel your body breathe for just one minute.
Deep breathing has been studied and found to change how we engage stress in situations.
That was literally 60 seconds.
If your mind went to other places just now or happens throughout this time,
It's okay.
It's natural.
And you're still here,
So let's move on.
Take a moment and identify one person or situation you are grateful for as you do this.
Take a moment and out loud or in your head.
Express gratitude towards God.
In the history of teaching in the Christian tradition,
Loneliness is complex.
We know that prolonged loneliness can lead to health issues that we should address with God and care professionals.
But loneliness in some moderate amounts presents a space for the Holy Spirit.
You can be lonely with many people around.
So in our often noisy and overpacked world,
Loneliness can point us to God.
Our bodies are an important part of prayer.
So if you're able,
Put out your arms and turn up your palms in a posture of release toward the Creator.
The Christian scriptures tell us a very practical spiritual opportunity.
Cast your cares towards the divine.
So imagine you wrote how you're feeling about being alone on the palms of your hands as an act of submission.
What words would be there?
God,
We place into your hands these things on our hands.
We give to you the open spaces in our lives and the impact it's having on our spirit.
A lot of meditation teaches the necessary ability to release.
Let's also focus on what healthy things we put into that space of release.
If we're releasing the cares of loneliness,
What are we needing to take on?
As you close your hands,
What accompanying things do you need as you deal with loneliness in your life?
How about divine presence,
Assurance,
Relational positive risk?
Loneliness can keep us from our purpose because it focuses us on scarcity rather than opportunity.
However,
In prayer,
We slow down and make commitments to our core foundations.
Spend a minute expressing to God how loneliness is impacting your life and what freedoms you want to live into.
God,
We accept the freedom that comes with submission to you.
We often fight against the very abundant life that you have for us.
So we accept the grace of contentment,
Being loved,
Your arms awaiting to greet us,
Opportunity to risk in relationship in new ways.
And taking time to do this today didn't change your loneliness.
You may have changed your orientation towards it.
You may need to take some greater steps to address how you feel.
But the great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition often maintained that prayer's greatest gift is not that it suddenly changes our situations,
But that it changes us.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
