Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Four-page, hand-written, internationally-mailed letter from a dear friend waiting for me when I got home.


"...I remember going with you to your office in West Chicago last year where you told me about how your first lunches there consisted of whole cucumbers, which you imagined your coworkers watched you eat with raised eyebrows. Isn't it weird that we've almost reached the midpoint of our twenties? Adult life is supposed to be well underway now. I suppose it is- a reality, in the same way Bonhoeffer says the Church is a reality. We just need to see it as such, and live it...

...Between the last paragraph and now, I went out to dinner with my friends, watched Grosse Pointe Blank with them, went for a midnight walk with one of them, and went to bed. And while I slept I had a dream that you were in! It was a good dream but I don't really remember much of the content. Maybe we were living in a treetop community, forty feet above a forest floor? It was amazing.

It's raining now... in Belgium we get a lot of rain. It will rain every day this week. I look forward to drinking a lot of tea and watching it out our window. The sun just came out, and it's still raining. I guess even the sun is powerless to stop it sometimes?...

...I finish this letter with a prayer for you, that today you will be consciously blessed and made aware of a single aspect of the love of God for you, which is beyond measure.

Your grateful friend,

So lucky, me.

Human Needs Global Resources Covenant, 2009

As fellow travelers on this journey, we commit to this covenant before God. Lord, in Your mercy, hear these our prayers:

When confronted with scarcity, need, and inadequacy, may we be nourished by the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation. Abundance overflows from Your table, sustaining all who come in faith. Father, help us.

When monotony blurs our vision and dulls our senses, may we encounter others as Christ did, through intentional presence in daily life, submitting as clay to be formed into vessels filled with the Spirit. Christ, guide us.

When wounded by the fractured condition of Your people, may we be united by Your Lordship in faith, hope, and love; seeing, as through the facets of a diamond, the beautiful spectrum of Your light reflected onto Your holy Church joined in praise. Spirit, empower us.

When all Creation groans, afflicted by injustice and driven to despair, may the promise of redemption root us in the hope of Your Kingdom: "Behold, I am making all things new!"

Holy Trinity, send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve You with gladness and singleness of heart.

Amen.