Monday Meditation

Monday Meditation: 

God of everything seen and unseen,

You fill our hearts with love

and our souls with joy.

You make us want to shout praises

in Your name

from the highest mountain tops

so all the world might hear and know of

Your compassion,

Your tolerance,

Your inventive nature,

Your playful creativity,

and the infinite nearness of Your love.

We come now in silent reverence

to feel the nearness of You.

[pause for silent meditation]

Yet while we so want the world

to know You more intimately,

we must also remember that

in order for us to exalt Your name,

we first have to listen for and hear Your voice.

We just need to be still and quiet now and then.

In fact, we need to be still and quiet more often.

We live in a noisy world,

with products and pitchmen

and ads tempting us with

shiny new objects

all vying for our attention.

Our instinct is to shout louder,

to pitch You and Your merciful love

over and against

the materialism of our age.

But this just causes us to fall

into lockstep with the product pitchmen,

and causes anyone who might listen for Your voice

to shut us out,

shut You out,

shut Your message out,

just as quickly as they change channels

from one commercial to another.

You can never be a commercial,

Wondrous and wonderful God of all creation!

You are more than a product to sell to others.

You are the life-force of the universe,

the consciousness of our very existence,

the conscience of our humanity—

and You deserve more respect

than to be treated like just another product

sitting on the shelf,

in between the ice cream and the iPhone.

We beg Your forgiveness

for treating You like a commodity,

and come to you now in silent reverence.

[pause for silent meditation]

We send You our joys and concerns silently,

listening for Your voice.

We don’t need to tell You what we need.

By listening and connecting,

our thoughts become Your thoughts,

our hopes become Your hopes,

our loved ones come under Your care.

We pray only to connect with Your presence,

and we pray in silent reverence.

Amen.