Hello Hello. I hope I find you in a good place today. Take care of yourself. You matter to us.
Today I wanted to talk briefly about silence.
I don’t know about you but I really struggle with silence.
Throughout my day, I tend to keep something making noise in the background of my life. I like to have a youtube video or a show on Netflix. Just something to be on and filling the void of silence.
But this push away from silence becomes a problem when my life gets stressful. And here we are in a very stressful situation and encountering real changes to our daily life. And it’s not exactly clear what will happen next. If I’m honest that can be overwhelming.
In that overwhelming feeling: I shy away from stillness and silence.
I do this because I don’t want to meaningfully face my worries, my doubts, and the roots of my stress.
Do any of you feel that way?
I’m willing to bet that each of us, to some extent, likes to avoid confronting the things that bother us and, even if silence isn’t your approach, you probably have some way of distracting yourself, a way of leaning away from meaningfully addressing what you want to avoid.
Now, I’m not interested in giving you a quick fix. I don’t know exactly what you are feeling or how life is affecting you.
But I have something I want us to do today that I think, if nothing else, will give us a moment of quiet reflection, healthy focus on God (in spite of circumstances), and engage our community in a shared experience. And in doing so will allow us all to not lean away from the circumstances of our lives but instead lean toward God.
We are going to pray together.
So here’s how its going to work.
I have used a number of resources to pull together some prewritten prayers on various areas of life to pray. After each prayer, I will include some space for you to pray or to sit in silence reflecting on the aspect of life we are praying about. I will begin each section with a title and end each prayer with “In Jesus name” followed by silence.
This is a chance to focus on God and I encourage you to take it.
Prayer for the Sick
Almighty and Eternal God,
You are the everlasting health of those who believe in You.
Hear us for your sick servants.
for whom we implore the aid of Your tender mercy,
that being restored to bodily health,
that they may give thanks to You in Your Church.
Through Christ our Lord.
In Jesus Name
Prayer for Our Leaders
God, thank You for the men and women who serve our country in leadership roles and for their families.
Please provide our leaders with reminders each day of why they decided to dedicate their lives to public service, and use that commitment to encourage them. Grant them wisdom over our lives and strengthen their conviction to the right thing.
In Jesus Name
Prayer for Others
We beseech You, Master, to be our helper and protector.
Save the afflicted among us; have mercy on the lowly;
Raise up the fallen; appear to the needy; heal the ungodly;
Restore the wanderers of Your people;
Feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners;
Raise up the sick; comfort the faint-hearted.
-Clement of Rome, 1 Century
In Jesus Name
Prayer for God’s compassion to reign over us.
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of Your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore You,
a heart to delight in You,
to follow and to enjoy You,
for Christ’s sake.
St. Ambrose of Milan (AD 339-397)
In Jesus Name
And we pray all this in Jesus name amen.
I don’t pretend to have all of the answers when it comes to the challenges we face every day but I believe in prayer and I believe that God is for us. These two things make every day a little easier. I welcome you to come back to these prayers as often as you need to and to make time for silence and reflection in God’s presence every day.
As we wrap up, it is even more important to me that you know how much you matter to us. We think of you all daily and are ready to be there for you in these complex times. I want you to remember that you are never alone. On the hardest of days, you can always reach out to your camp friends and your directors. We are not here to run camp (although we do that) we are here to help young leaders grow and develop. And that includes making time for you when you need it. You can reach me, Pat, at by email at pat@miniyowe.com.
Take the time for silence and reflection. When overwhelmed lean into God and his peace.
And at the very least, keep being awesome.
Take Care.
If you would like to continue to pray in this manner there is a stand-alone version of the prayer exercise available for you here.
This post is part of our Leap of Faith Audio Check-ins. We want to encourage you to leap into your faith and continue to grow at home, at school, and in your church. These audio check-ins are meant to encourage you as live out your faith every day.
Want to keep growing?
There are more episode of Leap of Faith and other resources for you to grow in your leadership and faith here.