March 30, 2022
It’s Not Exactly My Long Suit: A Prayer
O Lord, it’s not exactly my long suit, that’s for sure,
patience
not exactly my
long suit;
but then,
you know that, Lord,
listening to me a few weeks ago, grand total of three hours
on hold with
three different natural gas providers,
and before that
on hold with AT&T,
and before that,
on hold with Wellstar,
and you heard
what I was mumbling as
calming music not calming,
grating voice grating, saying
same thing over and over,
me mumbling
choice words,
not very nice words,
words
that would make a sailor blush;
because,
well,
patience
not my long suit,
frustrated,
fulminating,
fuming,
which means
waiting
not my long suit,
waiting for someone to answer,
waiting for a call to be returned,
waiting for the virus to disappear,
waiting for you to do something,
waiting for the sunshine, Nellie;
which means
understanding
not my long suit,
understanding
why I’m on hold,
why no answer,
why still waiting.
And I have a feeling, O Lord, that I’m not the only one,
many
short on patience,
especially with doctors
who say, “It’s serious – you need to
have another test
right away”,
“right away” meaning
“six weeks later”,
“serious” meaning
“three weeks after
the test an office visit”;
and so,
waiting,
all the while
wondering
if what so serious
becoming
more serious,
more critical,
more widespread;
all the while
imagining
the worst;
all the while
frustrated,
fulminating
fuming;
patience long gone,
not understanding,
waiting worse than knowing;
but not just doctors,
the virus too
(“Will we ever get back to normal?”)
and illness
(“Why can’t I bounce back like I once did?”)
and all that’s going on
(“I just don’t understand people anymore”).
O Lord, help me, help us all, to have more
patience,
because
we’re going to
need it;
because
new virus variant threatening,
(Here we go again?),
getting older
(Not for sissies),
more than ever
customer service a joke, politics a joke, culture a joke
(Why am I not laughing?);
need it
because
your timetable
not
our timetable,
your agenda
not
our agenda,
your will
not
our will;
and so,
grace us with a
faith that waits for you with patience, but a
faith that does not leave us twiddling our thumbs
but keeps us working to help bring about
your purposes, a
faith that keeps trusting your will for us
even when we don’t understand, a
faith that manages with confidence
whatever comes, a
faith that gives peace.
And we continue, O Lord, to pray for, plead for, the people of the
Ukraine.
grant them
strength enough
to continue to resist, fight back,
be victorious, and
to endure
in the face of the Russian onslaught and the suffering
it has brought upon them.
Move us
as a nation, and
as individuals,
to find ways
to support and assist and give hope to them
and to the millions of refugees
seeking sanctuary.
O Lord, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to have this talk
and it won’t be the last time either,
because,
well,
you know me,
patience, waiting, understanding,
not exactly my long suits;
and so,
maybe the best thing
for me
to pray
here at the end,
would be that you would
help me
do better
until the next time
we have to have this talk,
you know,
probably in a
week or two.
Amen.