Psalm 139—My WordsO Lord you know meI can’t hide anything from youYou see my nakedness and call meyour own wondrous beautiful childI don’t understand youI see myself with all my imperfectionsand hide in shameYou are so vastYou encompass and contain heaven and earthThere is no place I can run tono place I can hidethat is out of your range of vision or careYou have loved me foreverDesigned my days to always be in your presenceI am the one who chooses to be awayO that youwould rid my lifeof all that would keep mefrom youDraw me in…into your hidden wholenessinto your life-giving grace by Rev. Suzanne Guinn10/11/05Last week, Retreat House hosted 13 Lutheran (ELCA) pastors from the Eastern Dallas Conference. RH Guide, Rev. Suzanne Guinn led a brief communion service beginning with a reading and reflection on "Psalm 139 -- My Words." Suzanne offers this meditation to you for your own reflection:What is one of the blessings?What is one of the disappointments?What are ways you changed/grew over the past year?Think about the year ahead:What are the fears?What are the hopes?God knows us better than anyone and loves us with all our imperfections. Listen for a word from God in this prayer from Ted Loder:I Hold My Life Up to You NowPatient God,the clock struck midnightand I partied with a strange sadness in my heart,confusion in my mind.Now, I ask youto gather me,for I realizethe storms of time have scattered me,the furies of the year past have driven me,many sorrows have scarred me,many accomplishments have disappointed me,much activity has wearied me,and fear has spooked meinto a hundred hiding places,one of which is pretended gaiety.I am sick of a string of “have-a-nice-days.”What I want is passionate days,wondrous days,dangerous days,blessed days,surprising days,What I want is you!Patient Godthis day teeters on the edge of waitingand things seem to slip away from me,as though everything were only memoryand memory is capricious.Help me not to let my life slip away from me.O God, I hold up my life to you now,as much as I can,as high as I can,in this mysterious reach called prayer.Come close, lest I wobble and fall short.It is not days or years I seek from you,not infinity and enormity,but small things and moments and awareness,awareness that you are in what I amand in what I have been indifferent to.It is not new time,but new eyes,new heart I seek,and you.

~ written by Ted Loder, in Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle. http://www.amazon.com/Guerrillas-Of-Grace-Prayers-Battle/dp/0806690542/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354232066&sr=8-1&keywords=guerrilas+of+grace Posted on Prayers and Creeds, December 31, 2012. http://prayersandcreeds.wordpress.com/

I offer thanks to Lily Heine for the update for Refugee Services of Texas and sharing about local opportunities to welcome the strangers among us.Living in God's grace,Suzanne