Ordinary Time 
Pause
What does it take to tell the truth about ourselves? To admit we don’t know everything. To let go of distorted images. To refuse to pretend to feel things we don’t.
What does it take to tell the truth about God? To admit we don’t know everything. To let go of distorted images. To refuse to pretend to feel things we don’t.
Humble and honest prayers begin with telling the truth to ourselves and to God — about ourselves and about God.
Let us pray.
Listen
Even though our sins testify against us, help us, Lord, for your name’s sake. We have turned away from you and sinned against you time and again. You are the hope of Israel, its savior in times of trouble. Why are you like a stranger in the land, like a tourist spending only the night? Why are you like one taken by surprise, like a warrior unable to act? Yet you are in our midst, Lord; we are called by your name. Don’t give up on us.
Jeremiah 14:7-9
Think
We might think the Bible’s message is one of unquestioning hope and faith in God. When our hopes are shaky and our faith is doubt-full, we might think our relationship with God is broken and that God will not listen to our wobbly, unsure prayers.
The prophet Jeremiah prays with hope in God’s promise and faith in God’s presence, but this hope and faith come right along with shakiness and doubt. Even for Jeremiah, God does not always feel near. Jeremiah says God seems like a tourist, not a permanent resident; like someone who is shocked by what is happening; like a warrior who has lost their nerve. God does not always seem strong or reliable or in control.
Jeremiah’s prayer does not disguise his doubt or distress with God. Jeremiah prays with doubt and with distress, even while he prays with hope and with faith. And so can we.
Nikki Finkelstein-Blair
Pray
God, sometimes I’m doubtful and distressed. Sometimes I’m even doubtful in you and distressed by you.
Sometimes I don’t sense your presence or trust your actions, but I still want to hope you are with me. I still want to have faith in where you lead.
Thank you for not turning me away.
Amen.
Go
When we say “Amen,” we are saying, “Yes, truly.” We are saying, “Let it be so.”
In our silences — in our unspoken requests and questions — we hold the “Amen.”
In our stops and starts — in all the ways we move through life — we act out the “Amen.”
In our hesitations — in our uncertain ideas about ourselves and God — we remember the “Amen.”
In every silence, in every stop and every start, in every hesitant thought, God goes with you.
Yes, truly. Let it be so.
Amen.
