A BBQed Prayer

Sometimes I write prayers…

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for this day. Thank you for bringing the sun up this morning. Thank you for waking us up this morning. Thank you for sharing this beautiful day you’ve made with us. Thank you for loving us enough to come down from heaven and be with us. Thank you for forgiving us for the terrible things we have done and keep doing out of our struggle and brokenness and unwilling selfishness. Thank you for choosing to reach out to us with your loving arms and welcoming us into your great embrace every day. Thank you for this food you’ve made and given to us. Thank you for the hunger pangs in our bellies right now that remind us of how much we need the food that you’ve given us. Thank you for adopting all of us who turn to you as sons and daughters. Thank you for creating around us, right here, right now, today and every Saturday and often throughout our days and weeks and lonely nights a loving family of adopted brothers and sisters. Together we get to be your sons and daughters. Your treasured little kids. Thank you Lord for adopting me, for forgiving me, for taking me in and making something beautiful out of the mess I’ve created with they life you’ve given me. Thank you Lord for your love.
Let it be so. Amen.

A homeless man’s prayer

I just finished an interview with CBS channel 62 at the new Elevate Detroit CommuniD BBQ park. I’ve got a cold. So on Facebook this morning I asked for prayers during the interview. While there a homeless man came and sat on one of the benches and said, “Hallelujah, thank you Lord for sitting on this bench.”

As I was leaving I waved at him and he waved back. I walked over to say hi. As I came close I could hear him talking, but couldn’t understand everything he was saying. Then he waved me off and said, “I can’t talk right now, I’m praying for you.”

My friends, you haven’t lived until you walk up and overhear a homeless man privately praying for protection and provision for you!

God is so amazing!

Thank you, Lord! I needed that today.

Devotional Prayer

I did not write this. This is a prayer I took from a devotional that I read today. This is a prayer I pray for myself.

Jesus, I see You wash Your disciples’ feet. I hear You call me to follow Your example. Help me to serve those I lead today, meeting them at their point of need, and serving them without regard to position. May my leadership create true community, a community that reflects Your presence and example. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Homeless BBQ May 16th, 2009

This was our biggest Homeless BBQ to date. The weather forecast was calling for showers and right up until about 1pm they were right. But that’s when God decided to calm the storm…

The grilling didn’t stop for a solid 4 hours. In that time we cooked and gave away approx. 300 hamburgers and 200 hot dogs.

Father’s Day Prayer

I wrote this prayer last year. I was struggling with things then. I think this year I’m struggling even more… not because I’m failing, but because I’m better grasping how far I’ve got to go before I really forgive and really let go of the anger and the hurt. At church today we talked about how we need to respect our dad’s not just when we feel like they’ve earned it, but unconditionally. We talked about how when we respect them no matter what, that builds them up and encourages them. It helps them become the man God has called them to be.

Unconditional respect. Has anyone really experienced that before? It’s kind of hard to imagine, but I think it’s needed. Maybe if I give my dad the respect he hasn’t earned he will become more like the man God desires him to be. Maybe it’s only in giving him credit for more than he is right now or has been in the past that he’ll become what he’s called to be. I am, after all, my father’s son.

I found myself praying this today at church in my head so I just thought I’d share…

Hey God,

Give me strength and courage, wisdom and guidance. Help me to show him grace; the kind of grace that you’ve shown to me. Help me to see him as just a person who is broken and hurting, the same as I am. Help me to look to you and you alone for my strength and approval. Help me to see you as not just my heavenly father, but my dad. You are “Abba, Father”, my intimate and loving daddy. 

Help me not to hold against him all the times he has hurt me or continues to hurt me. Help me to forgive him as you forgive me… since I am a child of yours, you forgive me not just when I ask for it, but when I need it, whenever I let you down, even before I ask for it. Help me to show him the respect and love not that he deserves, but that you show us in your grace. Help me to honor him as my father simply because he is my father and because you tell me to. The day is called “Father’s Day” after all, not “Good Father’s Day”. The only “Good” holiday I know of happens on a Friday. And I don’t seem to remember anyone getting what they deserve on that day. 

Fill me with strength to be the spiritual leader in our relationship since he is not. Replace my anger and bitterness with compassion and empathy. Replace my desire for vengeance with a desire for grace and a desire to honor you. Help me cling to you as my dad. Because you are the one who won’t let me down. You are the true dad that I desire to model for my kids. You are the one who is good. I love you. Thank you for adopting me as your son, as a part of your family, as your little child. I hope I can honor you today… on Father’s Day.

Your troublesome little kid,

Mike

Father’s Day Prayer

Hey God,

Give me strength and courage, wisdom and guidance.  Help me to show him grace; the kind of grace that you’ve shown to me.  Help me to see him as just a person who is broken and hurting, the same as I am.  Help me to look to you and you alone for my strength and approval.  Help me to see you as not just my heavenly father, but my dad.  You are “Abba, Father”, my intimate and loving daddy. 

Help me not to hold against him all the times he has hurt me or continues to hurt me.  Help me to forgive him as you forgive me… since I am a child of yours, you forgive me not just when I ask for it, but when I need it, whenever I let you down, even before I ask for it.  Help me to show him the respect and love not that he deserves, but that you show us in your grace.  Help me to honor him as my father simply because he is my father and because you tell me to.  The day is called “Father’s Day” after all, not “Good Father’s Day”. The only “Good” holiday I know of happens on a Friday.  And I don’t seem to remember anyone getting what they deserve on that day. 

Fill me with strength to be the spiritual leader in our relationship since he is not.  Replace my anger and bitterness with compassion and empathy.  Replace my desire for vengeance with a desire for grace and a desire to honor you.  Help me cling to you as my dad.  Because you are the one who won’t let me down.  You are the true dad that I desire to model for my kids.  You are the one who is good.  I love you.  Thank you for adopting me as your son, as a part of your family, as your little child.  I hope I can honor you today… on Father’s Day.

Your troublesome little kid,

Mike