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 have struggled with attending to prayer,
And I hope this little offering brings you closer to the Creator.
Today's meditation is on opportunity loss.
Let's start by just taking five big breaths.
Every 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 let's just feel ourselves breathe for one whole minute.
Oh,
What a pain!
That was literally 60 seconds.
If your mind went to other places just now,
Or that happens throughout this time,
It's okay.
It's natural.
You're still here,
So let's move on.
Take a moment to identify one person or situation you are grateful for as you do this.
Take a moment,
And out loud or in your head,
Express that gratitude towards God.
Take a moment to recognize that one person or situation you are grateful for as you do this.
Take a moment to recognize that one person or situation you are grateful for as you do this.
Take a moment now just to realize that one person is grateful for as you do this.
Often not second nature to us.
Accepting that we cannot make every good idea a reality can be frustrating,
But it's definitely part of the spiritual journey.
If you're able,
Extend your arms in front of you and turn your palms upward in a posture of release towards the Creator.
Our bodies are an important part of prayer.
The Christian scriptures tell us of a very practical spiritual opportunity.
Cast your cares toward the divine.
Now imagine you wrote the lost opportunities and your feelings about those lost opportunities 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 good not realized and the potential impact lost.
A lot of meditation teaches the necessary ability to release.
Let's focus on what healthy things we put into the space that we release.
If we release the cares of opportunity loss,
What are we needing to take on?
As you close your hands,
What accompanying things do you need as you deal with this loss in your life?
How about embracing faith,
Hope,
Giving over control,
Perspective of a bigger plan?
This kind of disappointment keeps us from our purpose because it focuses us on the deficit rather than opening us up to new possibilities.
However,
In prayer we slow down and make commitments to our core foundations.
Spend a minute expressing to God how this opportunity loss is impacting your life and what freedoms you want to live.
So 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,
New possibilities and perspectives.
Taking this time today did not change what situation was not fully realized.
It may have changed your orientation towards it today.
You may need to take some greater steps to address this level of disappointment.
But the great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition often maintained that prayer's greatest gift is not that it suddenly changes situations but that it often changes us.
So so so so so so so so so
