God, I’m praying here because I sense this is not the year for resolutions.
Self-improvement does not feel adequate for all that is going on…and it certainly isn’t appropriate when survival has been the first and primary goal.
God, I am trying to practice being thankful for my body. Because thought the ups and the downs my body has gotten me through the year. And am working to process and absorb the trauma that has hammered down. I’m trying to practice gentleness, with the flesh that envelopes me. Did Christ look at his body and struggle with gentleness and thanksgiving?
God, you know I have other things to absorb too. The lessons of economies and ongoing structures of neglect and violence. The rawness of the human condition has been made plain, which is why an individual resolution won’t do this year.
A prayer is more fitting God, because resolutions are about certainty, and prayer is about all the places I’m floundering and trying to figure out.
After all God, it’s been the year of flexibility and pivotry and other bendy things.
So here I am God, praying for the New Year, for the new things. On the things that are unresolved, the things we are working on, the things that are not just about me and now but are more communal and complex in nature.
So, God, help me as I’m irresolute this year. Help me to be okay with it. Or, maybe not. Not everything is ok.
So here’s to an irresolute year–of community and mutual aid and epiphanies and a way to be present.
Let me be as present as I safely can. And let it not be not a resolution or a goal, but rather a way to strive for I pray.
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Please consider supporting my pursuit of a doctorate in Divinity as a practicing theologian in Creative Writing! I’m close to the $2,000 I need for tuition. Every contribution from $10 to $100 has been a huge help.
katyandtheword 