prayer of thanks

thank you deep breathing

thank you self care 

soul care

silent short simple prayer

thank you trusted confidants

true connectedness

unquenchable spirits

unbreakable trust

thank you freedom to fail

and fail fast

regrouping rebuilding

and learning from the past

getting back up and trying again

thank you brothers 

sisters 

and friends

thank you sabbath

deliberation

defusing temptation to cave in

thank you confession

listening ear 

thank you inclusion

acceptance

resilience

picking up the shards of broken glass

another chance

a second pass

thank you perseverance

determination

deliverance 

the road to redemption

and thank you 

thank you

thank you

salvation

minimalist morning prayer

the sky is brightening
from black to deep blue to red
tinges of sunlight around the edges
unfamiliar birds are flying in a V
from left to right

some mornings
a couple of short phrases of prayer
not spoken but breathed
are all that's needed

it's enough

my soul inhales the silence
and exhales remaining cares
finding God's attentive stillness
in the spaces of the sky

prayer for the fight

yesterday morning i needed to pray this prayer, to have the strength to rise up with courage to face a challenge that demanded the best from me--more than i thought i had in me.  

o God

i have given myself to you as my Lord and Commander.

now is the test--
now the challenge.

i submit again to Your authority over my heart,
the floodgates of pure faith you wish to open in me.

steer my vision,
arouse my trust,
wake up my courage,
the love in me.

be Lord of my resolve,
Lord of my fear.
Lord of my words,
my demeanor,
my countenance.

Lord of my posture,
my will to give.

sharpen my eye,

quicken my intuition.
awaken my expressiveness.
open wide the doors of encouragement
and let love fly free.

strengthen my backbone.
leave no loving or protective word unsaid in me,
no act of bold support undone.

let me be fully the healer,
the advocate, protector--
eyes of love, resolve of steel,
radiating Your joy and light
and your
strong,
unconquerable
Hope.

full text of Zulu Time Summit session 1 opener video

Hi friends,

It's a longer-than-usual post... but i hope it's rewarding :-)

You can also find this at willow creek association blog:  www.wcablog.com

zulu time

06:00 hours: 

Zulu time

the sun emerges predictably red on the horizon

start the clock on the day

and we humans

emerge from our stasis,

our sleep

and we take up the responsibility

of free will

mostly unaware that we are

inexorably

connected

one to another

in invisible pathways

jetstreams

shipping lanes

prevailing winds

genetic strains

climate patterns

tidal pulls

the mysterious inroads of prayer

connected:

when one is lost, another grieves

when one is hurt, another bleeds

06:01

this day is in our hands...

what will we do with it?

  

a visionary speaker

sparks an innovator

a design takes shape

wheels set in motion

giving birth to a movement

spreading like a flame

through a church

an enterprise

a city

sparking new ideas 

new adrenaline

walls fall and doors swing open

giving life and hope to

tens

hundreds thousands

moving mountains

feel it?—

potential

it’s everywhere

 a quiver in the atmosphere

disturbing the Pacific Rim

fears in Japan

spark prayers in Berlin

connected

a flashing light

an ambulance siren

a freakish cold spell in Lisbon

child and father under blankets

shivering by the bank on

Boulevard St Germaine

Paris

Hanover Street in Baltimore

by the convenience store

look in those eyes

movement in the ocean floor

Singapore

Bucharest

Malawi

United Nations

Children without vaccinations

09:00 hours Zulu time

leaders gather in New York

scribbled notes from a speech

pen and ink on a Moleskine,

three inspired physicians

having made a point to listen

now engage in conversation

posing the question

will these great minds be moved...

to action?

they wish to learn

they book a flight

wings lift off into the night

passport check

security

Jakarta

Rwanda

Congo Kinshasa

sworn enemies

humble themselves

before a 40 inch screen

(as praying souls in Paraguay hold their breath

on their behalf)

 ...unprecedented

they gather to learn

to heal and to hear

hands join in prayer

clearing the air

listening,

open

willing to be moved...

letting go the deepest of the wounds..

reconciling

excising the fear

brothers

for the first time...

in one hundred years

instantaneous paths of prayer

whisper synced from here to there

decisions to leave

decisions to stay

soldiers drop to their knees to pray

13:00 hours

Syria

Libya

taking up arms

alert

alarms

worldwide protests

desperate prayer requests

old regimes fall

new ones rise

sleeping churches come alive

calls to action

cyber campaigns

after the drought

comes at last...

the rain

Sao Paolo

Corcovado

statue of Christ with open hands

voiceless children

white hot sand

Chicago

Krakow

Amsterdam

commerce

drug trade

street lights

gang signs...

follow down every pathway

Palestine

Mumbai

slums of the Dalit

zoom in on Cairo

the Zabaleen

Garbage city

children’s unprotected souls and feet

one woman listens to the Voice

in the silence

and an idea

catches fire...

in the desert wind

the dry season ends....

the healing.. begins

South Asia

a church in a city that must not be named

one step away

from being found out

shut down

incarcerated

but.. for the prayers in

Des Moines...

and Bahrain

always listen..

watch the streets..

read the signs..

between the lines..

baptisms

in hiding

in tubs

in fonts

in pools

in lakes

the cleansing water

the tides

the surf..

tsunami

Tokyo

from the heat of desperation

comes... connection

Japanese youth

take up a collection

for reconstruction

digging out from under the quake

caring for those left in the wake

spending themselves for the sake

of the broken

what it takes...

is one listening ear...

wherever you are..

tuning in...

finger to the wind...

a willingness to be moved

23:59 hours: 

zulu time

the stars glow predictably white in the black night sky

some keen observers connect the dots

and see them as constellations

others of scientific mind

see them carried along with us in a vast gravitational sweep

that moves galaxies

others see each star as an unrelated...

disconnected...

individual point of light..

all on its own...

alone..

in the universe

each awake and looking human being

takes one last look at those brilliant points of light...

and drifts off to sleep

reset the clock for one more day

...what will we do with it? 

restoration work

a prayer of trust that i need to say out loud.  many of the people that i love are in pain, and need physical healing. i need to reaffirm my trust in God's amazing capacity to heal. i need to say it out loud. today.


Lord God
you have built such a stunning earth
teeming with so many human souls.

billions.

You know each one by name
by fingerprint
by scent.

You know every brain wave
every unspoken microscopic wish
and flit of a dream
that passes through every consciousness.

You do restoration work
in the disheveled cathedral
of every soul
to the extent
that You are allowed access.

it is Your heart's purpose
to rebuild and restore
to make all things pristine and new.

of course You can heal.
of course You can set right that which is in disrepair.

of course You can do wonder works and brilliances
with a mere shred of faith to work with.

let me be one of the believers today.
let me offer up the shred of faith.
let me pour out a fresh supply of raw hope.

may i be a truster today.

what if i

Jesus of Nazareth had everything and made himself nothing.  An intentional downward free fall.  I wrote this song years ago, asking myself, what if I--what if we all--were to make the radical choice to actually follow Him down that road?    

what if i

what if I let go my grasp

of all the things that raise me higher

what if I gave my life

as a gift 

blessed and broken

for the poor of every kind

poor as I am inside

would there be less of me

would I become a nobody

or would I finally be

the best of what You had in mind for me

what if I crucified

all my pride and upward striving

put an end to dreams of fame

bigger things and social climbing

made myself more teachable

reachable, invisible

would there be less of me

would I become a nobody

or would I finally be

the best of what You had in mind for me

one finger at a time

loosen my hold on

the pride that I cling to

then guide me by the hand

lower and lower down to the places You go

for I need to go with You

wherever You take me to

what I if had seen the way

You endured humiliation

seen You go so deathly low

to secure my own salvation

how could I live a lie

pretending I’m

up here so high

give me the heart to see

how You became a nobody

and showed me the way to be

the best of what You had in mind

the rest of what You had in mind

the best of what You had in mind for me




Link to recording "What if I" - ©2005 Greg Ferguson

.

heat

i wonder

at moments

if

even with all the right eating and exercise

the cause of much turmoil of health

turns out to be

a dishevelment of the inside spirit

in a world of overheated ambitions

that conspire to pull us apart

to fragment us

and then to turn those fragment factions
against each other

into a state of blistering civil war 

making the inside of our skin

a hot battleground

invisible skirmishes

little explosions

implosions

firefights and turf wars

can be dramatic and ravaging

in the troubled human soul

of those who present

even the coolest
smoothest persona

how does all that silent warfare

fit in the space of a human head?

or even a body? 

a bloodstream? 

does it register to the outside world

as an uncharacteristic

twitch in the eyelid

perhaps a furrow in the brow

a letting slip of a caustic word

an ill-advised phrase
a burst of hot rage

or maybe only detectable
as a distracted glance the other way

perhaps this is how

the hot conflagration of a human soul

betrays itself

to the alert observer

or

if painstakingly concealed

in favor of a perfect outward image

it turns inward

going on a rampage

and visiting havoc on the human infrastructure 

until it smolders like Gettysburg

or Normandy the day after the battle

ah friends we must
release

pray for peace

declare a truce

on the inside

enough

I'm re-posting this song lyric/prayer that I wrote years ago, and first posted in May of '11.  It was a good reminder for me this morning and I thought it might be for you as well.

enough

what You give me is enough

i'm empty now but nothing is beyond You

You feed thousands easily

and You'll move mountains if i believe

You'll move mountains if i believe

how You made me is enough

there's no point in being a pretender

to play the role of someone else

it's enough just to be myself

You invite me to be myself

how You use me is enough

i don't need a greater reputation

i will harvest gratefully

the plot of land You gave to me

the plot of land You gave to me

my best is all You ask of me

i don't need more than You provide for me

i'll do the best i can

with what i have

and what i have

will be enough for me.

link to recording of "Enough"

three destinations

i met

a wise old soul

who let me in on a secret

consider if you will
he said
three possible destinations

Yesterday

is better known by the name 

Regret
journey there
and you will find

it contains
great masses of people 

Tomorrow

is famously known as

Worry

and it too is overcrowded

the ancient eyes of the wise old soul
brightened

I submit for your approval

said he
the third destination

Now

it's best known as
This Moment

it's almost uninhabited

it's vast and spacious

and absolutely brimming with possibility
all it requires is a keen eye and a bit of faith

truth be told 

he said in a whisper

it’s the only real place to live

i wanted to hear more

but I was running late

and I had to go

i wonder if he’s still there