Some days I find it harder to write than others. My mind is wrestling with many things and won’t settle on any one topic that I can think through.
I’m thinking about work, not my job so much as work. My job required a lot of physical labor this week and though I was able to get all my tasks done in a timely manner, I’m thinking about how much longer I will be able to physically accomplish simple tasks like moving, unboxing, placing 21 computers in a classroom and removing, moving and stacking the 21 computers that are being replaced. I had good help, but I’m a little weary after a satisfyingly successful transition.
I’m thinking about friends. This has been an autumn of loss for me. Last night I visited with the family of a friend I had known all my life, grown up with, gone to school with, laughed and cried with. There have been too many of those “visitations” for me this fall.
And I’m thinking about the election coming up, concerned not that my candidate won’t win, but that whoever wins will not do so in a caring, responsible, adult way. I don’t like the mood of my country and I’m not sure any candidate, or party, or governmental body is going to be able to pull us back out of this mood any time soon.
So I thought I would tell you a feel good story. Maybe it will help lift my mood, center my mind, make you smile. Simple goals are sometimes the best, right?
My religion is pretty simple. I believe there is a God, one God, who created us and expects us to act like rational and caring human beings for as long as we are on this earth, so that’s what I try to do. The most compelling and universal religious commandment given us is to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting a friend and we decided to visit her church on Sunday morning. It’s a small, country church very much like the church I grew up attending…my favorite kind of church. Small enough that you know the people who sit next to you and if you don’t, they shake your hand and welcome you. Where they sing songs off key and enthusiastically, sometimes faster, sometimes slower than the accompanying piano. And after church, when you stop someplace for lunch, you see most of the people you were with for the past hour.
As part of the service the children are invited to come up to the front of the church for a special story and sometimes some treats.
This church is such a small one, only two little girls came up for the special children’s story. I don’t even remember what the children’s story was, it was unremarkable, but when the leader was done, she asked if one of the children would like to say prayer.
That’s exactly what she said, “Would one of you like to say prayer?”
One of the little girls raised her hand eagerly and the leader asked everyone to bow their heads. The crowd bowed their heads.
The little girl said loudly and proudly, “PRAYER!”
I think God laughed out loud with the rest of us and I think that was His favorite prayer that Sunday.
Maybe the children are on to something. It might really be that simple.
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