   During our Mid-week Lenten services on Wednesday evenings, I will offer a special prayer rather than deliver a sermon. The purpose of the prayers is to help us keep being Christian in a culture in which it’s harder and harder to be Christian, Christian in a way that matters to God and others too. The hope is that the prayers will be used to guide personal prayer not just on Wednesday evenings but each day throughout Lent and beyond, because that is the only way we can keep being Christian in a culture in which Christianity is hardly Christian at all, at least not in any way Jesus would recognize: by praying for the strength and courage to be Christian in a way that he would recognize.
   Following is one of the prayers I will offer...
A Prayer for Lent
                                        O Lord, we live in a culture of screens,
                                              little screens,
                                                           big screens,
                                                                     all kinds of screens,
                                            and many of us can’t take our eyes off them,
                                                   heads down,
                                                           heads up,
                                                                  heads that can’t turn away,
                                                one hand never free,
                                                      one eye always eyeing,
                                                             one ear always ringing,
                                                                           talking, texting, tweeting
                                                                                 non-stop,
                                                     at work, at home, in the mall and
                                                                                 grocery store too,
                                                            out to dinner with friends
                                                                   all the while reading what lies on
                                                                                       our laps,
                                                not really seeing the other,
                                                    not seeing the face of the other coming toward us
                                                        or seated right next to us,
                                                  the very face that might be the very face
                                                            we most need and long to see,
                                                                the very face of Christ.
                                          O Lord, this day and each day, give us, we pray,
                                                                     the courage –
                                                 yes, the courage, because that is what it takes –
                                                                  the courage –
                                                              to look up from the screen,
                                                           to turn away from the screen, even
                                                          to turn off the screen,
                                                   and look, really look,
                                                                       at the faces of others
                                                    and see them as the human beings that they are,
                                             human beings who need us to be human to them,
                                                    human beings
                                                          who may be as happy as we are
                                                                  or as unhappy as we are
                                                        who feel the same grief and emptiness
                                                                                we feel,
                                                    who need the very same mercy and love
                                                                            and kindness
                                                                                   shown to them
                                                                as we need shown to us,
                                               human beings who are fighting the same battle
                                                           we all of us are fighting
                                                       and need kindness and love and mercy
                                                                  to see them through.
                                            O Lord, help us to keep looking,
                                                                          looking away,
                                                         and look at others
                                                      so that we keep being Christian
                                                             in a way that matters.
                                            Amen.
Â
                                                            God be with you,
                                                                                                                                Jeff
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I will pray this for this coming lent. Although I believe that prayers should come from the heart and not written or memorized. Prayers should be like you are talking to God.
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