O God, our help in ages past…Our hope for years to come… What about now? Where are you now? Where is your saving power, Your eternal peace, Your outpouring of grace in our present? We are in need of you now. The Reverend Julia Seymour serves Big Timber Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Big Timber, MT.… Read More
Friday Prayer
For those who are out of words for praying- Those who stare off into the middle distance, too tired for sentences or sense. Those whose grief is too deep for anything but sobs and deafening silence. Those who have poured out for others with very little available to fill themselves.Those who have deconstructed lies they were told… Read More
Friday Prayer
There are things that happen that are unthinkable, but not unimaginable. We are able to imagine them, but we push them away because we do not want to think about them. What is unimaginable is living after the unthinkable. Holy and merciful God, we pray with broken hearts for all who are living- breath by… Read More
Friday Prayer: 1 January 2021
I said to my soul, Soul, we are here. We are here with the aches of the past. We are here with the promise of the future. The past has promise too. That someday there will be meaning and depth and story that we do not yet see. That promise fulfilled does not mean that… Read More
Wednesday Prayer
As the year ends, God, what shall we keep from this year? What blessings have we wrestled out of its kick to the stomach, its unrelenting grief and hollowing loneliness? And what, O God, shall we take up in the new year, as it brings its gift of newness to our weariness? May we hold… Read More
Friday Prayer
You already know, Love,How I sometimes kick prayer down the listUntil I have more time Or energyOr mental capacityOr something. In the moments before sleep, I mutter thatYou already know everything, so amen and amen. And sometimes I stare off into spaceWith the intention of focusBut my mind blanks out and when I shake myself… Read More
Friday Prayer: Note to Self from Psalm 103
Note to self: Bless the Lord. We’re in the middle of a marathon slog, but God has not abandoned us. Intermittent joys have sustained us beyond what we could have imagined. The Lord has stayed our hand from slapping the foolish and, sometimes, from typing the thing we cannot take back. Come on, soul. It… Read More
Friday Prayer
The day after the Ascension, Mary of Magdala thought she glimpsed Jesus, in the market. Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw the light tan of his robe, a flicker of movement that her heart recognized. When she turned to look more directly, all she saw were strangers all… Read More
Friday Prayer
I will enter your house with burnt offerings and will pay you my vows— those that I promised with my lips and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble. – Psalm 66:13-14 To the Heavenly Accounting Department: I am checking in on the status of my account. I am have lost track of my number of… Read More
Friday Prayer
Holy God- Into your hands I commit the spirit of Ahmaud Arbery, that he may rest in peace and rise in power. Into your hands I commit the spirits of his family, his friends, his community, and all who knew him and loved him. Into your hands I commit the spirits of the people who… Read More
