Each New Day
Waking from sleep is a marvel. Some of us are groggy, slowly coming to consciousness as the last strange dream fades. Many of us are achey. Some, I have heard, are ready to jump up and greet the day. Some of us interrogate that tickle in our throats: is it from allergies, post-nasal drip, or our immune systems being tested by a cold or covid?
However we wake, each new day is a gift. The moon retreated, the sun rose, and the world kept turning! If we’re fortunate, nothing shook or erupted in the night. If we’re fortunate, there’s running water to wash our faces and something to wrestle up for breakfast.
As each new day brings new stories from occupied or war-torn communities with restrictions on humanitarian aid, piled on top of the stories from our own community of those in desperate circumstances, we don’t take these morning miracles for granted.
What do we do with this gift of each new day?
Spiritual pillar and justice seeker Ted Loder wrote of the gift of each new day in this prayer of beginnings:
God of history and of my heart,
So much has happened to me during these whirlwind days:
I’ve known death and birth;
I’ve been brave and scared;
I’ve hurt, I’ve helped;
I’ve been honest, I’ve lied;
I’ve destroyed, I’ve created;
I’ve been with people, I’ve been lonely;
I’ve been loyal, I’ve been betrayed;
I’ve decided, I’ve waffled;
I’ve laughed and I’ve cried.
You know my frail heart and my frayed history-
And now another day begins.O God, help me to believe in beginnings
and in my beginning again,
no matter how often I’ve failed before.Help me to make beginnings:
to begin going out of my weary mind into fresh dreams
daring to make my own bold tracks in the land of now;
to begin forgiving
that I may experience mercy;
to begin questioning the unquestionable
that I may know truth;
to begin disciplining
that I may create beauty;
to begin sacrificing
that I may accomplish justice;
to begin risking
that I may make peace;
to begin loving
that I may realize joy.Help me to be a beginning for others,
to be a singer to the songless,
a storyteller to the aimless,
a befriender of the friendless;
to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,
of assurance for the doubting,
of reconciliation for the divided;
to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,
of comfort for the sorrowing,
of friendship for the forgotten;
to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,
of sweetness for the soured,
of gentleness for the angry,
of wholeness for the broken,
of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.Help me to believe in beginnings,
to make a beginning,
to be a beginning,
so that I may not just grow old,
but grow new
each day of this wild, amazing life
you call me to live
with the passion of Jesus Christ. Amen.
May we not just grow old but grow new. What a prayer for each new day!
As we all hear stories from each other of inclusion, community, service, justice, and worship, we remember that each new day is a new chance to celebrate each other, heal loneliness, serve humbly with love, seek justice, and make a joyful noise to honor God. Each new day a new chance to live as Christ lived. Each day of this wild amazing life we are called to live with Christ’s passion.
What do you do with your gift of each new day? Who do you celebrate? Who do you reach out to?
I’d love to hear your answers.
With wonder,
Pastor Karyn