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,
And I have struggled with attending to prayer and hope this little offering brings you closer to the Creator.
Today's meditation is inspired by American poet Marshall Mathers in the popular song Lose Yourself.
Let's start by taking five big breaths to slow down our heart and our mind.
Self-breathing has been studied and found to change how we engage stress and situations.
This is good for slowing down,
Preparing for prayer,
But also a good practice for all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.
So feel yourself breathe for just one minute.
That was a literal 60 seconds.
If your mind went to other places just now or happens throughout this time,
That'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.
In Eminem's song,
He imagines himself on a stage needing to step into a single big moment in order to make it big and solve the life's issues that stem from poverty.
It is not often that we get in such high stakes public moments.
However,
Overcoming fear and seizing an opportunity can be a part of our professional and personal lives.
In these times,
Holding our nerve,
Breathing through anxiety,
And being grounded can be the keys to our success.
Our bodies are an important part of prayer.
So if you're able,
Put your arms out and turn your palms up in a posture of release to the creator.
The Christian scriptures tell of a very practical spiritual opportunity.
Cast your cares towards the divine.
When you wrote the big moment or how you're feeling about it on the palm of your hands as an act of submission,
What words would be there?
God,
We place into your hands these things on our hands.
When we give to you these consequential happenings and their impact,
A lot of meditation teaches the necessary ability to release.
Let's also focus on what healthy things we need to put into that space of release.
If we are releasing the cares of this experience,
What are we needing to take on?
As you close your hands,
What accompanying assurances do you need in order to be your best self in your biggest moments?
How about the assurance that I am good enough?
I am ready for this.
God has prepared me for this,
Or I have worked for this.
Fear of performing in key moments keeps us from our purpose because it focuses us on failure,
Identity,
Lies,
What we are not,
And the limits of what God can do.
However,
In prayer we slow down and make commitments to our core foundations.
Spend a minute expressing to God how you hope this situation turns out and the positive impact it can have on your life.
God we accept the freedom that comes with submission to you.
So often we fight against the very abundant life that you have for us.
So we accept the grace of being strong,
Capable,
Experienced,
Skilled,
And enough.
Now taking this time today did not change what is ahead of you.
It may have changed your orientation towards it today.
You will still need to lose yourself in the moment and own it and never let it go.
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 and makes us ready to engage the world with the confidence that we have.
