C-19 Reflection #29: Our Daily Bread of Letting Go (Relinquishing 4)

C-19 Reflection (#29)

 Theme: Our Daily Bread of Letting Go (Relinquishing 4)

 The way of relinquishing takes the bumpy road of daily prayer. We draw near to this invitation to let go when we pray the way that Jesus teaches his disciples to pray.

When we begin to pray by centering on God our Father through praise and by expressing our desire first and foremost for God’s will to be accomplished through the coming of the kingdom, our vision for God expands and at the same time we no longer find ourselves being quite so comfortable focusing on the center of our own little universes. As we pray for God’s will to be accomplished, our main preoccupations seem to get shaken up and put on the table for realignment. Pastor-theologian Craig Barnes once wrote, “God allows our dreams to die because they are our dreams and not his dreams.” It certainly seems that this is the kind of struggle we are praying into presently.

Our praying continues with three requests for daily bread, forgiveness and protection. If ever the myth and illusion of self –reliance and self -sufficiency is going to get exposed in us, it must be as we express our reliance on God at every level – daily, relational, cosmic.

It is interesting to me that the invitation to pray in the Jesus way and the present calamity seem to be conspiring to create an opportunity for us to loosen our grip. As they say, be careful what you ask for.

The Lord’s Prayer (Common Version)

 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us

not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

 For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.