11:00pm Third Shift

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.  Put on the whole armor of God.  Ephesians 6:10-11a

As I turn off my lamp and pull the covers over me, I am fully aware there are others in the city just beginning their work day, this hour.  It is a shift I have worked once in my life as a cashier in a grocery store.  It is a shift that requires you to be awake, alert, active during the hours most others are at home with their families and may be enjoying rest.

As I hold my pillow close, I especially think of the mothers in this city who have left children behind this hour of the night; children taken to twenty-four childcare centers, children at home with an older brother or sister, children at their grandmother’s house, children home alone with instructions and phone numbers and distant prayers.  These mothers are doing what is necessary to provide lunchbox snacks and back-to-school shoes; doing what they must do to stay off government assistance and to keep the lights on. 

With my bedroom door open, I can hear one of my children snoring and another talking in his sleep, demanding that some pre-school friend give him back the toy.  If one of them has a bad dream, I am here to comfort and soothe.  If another awakens, remembering a homework assignment that is unfinished, I will reassure them I will wake them up an hour early.  A noise outside?  A mother inside.  This hour, some things simply should not be taken from granted.

Protect the mothers and fathers who are working this hour to support their families. Watch over their children, Mother and Father God.  Dismiss their bad dreams and calm the goings-on in their neighborhoods.  Surround them with your love.  Grant them peace that they may sleep through this night and find rest.

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  Who in your life needs protection?

2.  How does God’s reassuring voice speak through you?

3.  What does it mean for you to feel safe?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

5:00am Morning News

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." - Albert Einstein

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight; In all your ways acknowledge God and God shall direct your paths.  Proverbs 3:5 & 6

There is a part of me that needs to know.  Was there a shooting over night?   Was anyone killed?  Has anyone gone missing?  Has the pregnant woman been found?  Have the police been friend or foe?  Was there an earthquake, flood, hurricane while I was asleep?  Is the forest still burning?  Are our leaders looking out for all of the people or just some of the people?  Will the soldiers be coming home soon?  Did the food reach the refugees?  Did the shelter get its funding approved?  Did they find the man who molested the child?  I want to make sense of the information I am receiving.  I have a feeling of urgency to sort it all out, and in the process become overwhelmed with the desire to do something about it.

At this hour, my eleven-year-old daughter bounces down the steps.  “What’s the weather suppose to be?  I need to know what to wear today.”  I pause as her words pull me from the concern, fear, sadness I have already claimed this hour. Her inquiry gives me permission to exhale again.  What do we wear on a day like this?  All is not well.  All is in the hands of God this hour, this day, always.  Clothe yourself with what is needed for the day, a small inner voice says. Courage.  Humility.  Patience.  Love.   I thank my daughter for the gift she has given me this hour.  I begin to claim what will be needed to live and to serve this day.

Gracious God, it is such a chaotic world we live in.  It seems we are so far away from your original plan for humanity, for the land, for the world.  Thank you, this hour, for reminding me to just breathe and trust in you. 

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  What concerns or worries you?

2.  What do you do when you find yourself overwhelmed?

3.  How is God asking for your trust?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

4:00am Dreams

Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions.  -Edgar Cayce

Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.  Joel 2:28

I am awakened by a dream I have had many times before.  In the dream, I am at the downtown public library and the library is filled with men.  The men represent all ethnicities, all ages.  Their common bond is that none of them have jobs.  They have no meaningful work.  No place to be.  On their faces are looks of despair and worthlessness.

I begin to fly above them and the roof of the library disappears.  There is a beautiful, dark, evening sky sprinkled with starlight.  I fly high in the air and then swoop down where they are, magic wand in hand, tapping them on the head, one by one.  I touch one and he becomes a doctor.  Another tap and the man next to him is a teacher standing in front of children in his classroom.  Next man tapped,  a firefighter.  Another a construction worker.  Still another transforms into a weatherman on a popular, national morning news program. 

I fly to another section of the library and the first man I tap becomes the librarian.  A chef…a preacher leading bible study…a painter on a ladder…It is always a very long dream.  I never run out of sky or magic or work that brings them dignity and worth.

This is my dream this hour.  This is their dream every hour of every day.

O God, all of the magic and power belongs to you.  Be ever- present in the lives of those who lack substance and real meaning to their days and their nights.  May your holy spirit and their efforts bring about change in their lives.  May they claim their worth through you and in you.

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  What are your dreams for humanity?

2.  Are there things you may do to make your dreams come true?

3.  How has God spoken to you as you sleep?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

6:00am Candles

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?  ~Maurice Freehill

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?  Romans 8:31-32

At the striking of the match my prayers begin.  To light a candle is to welcome hope, to illuminate possibility, to encourage the goodness in this day to come forth.  As I gaze into the tiny flame, I pray:

Asking...that my children offer their best to the world today.

Offering... praise for the beauty of the rising sun.

Seeking...healing for my marriage that is wounded.

Celebrating...that I already have all that I will need for this day.

Remembering...the labor and love of my ancestors.

Mourning.. the abrupt ending of two teenage lives.

Laughing...as I recall the joy of yesterday.

Pausing... as I listen for what God is asking of me this day.

Recognizing... that my life is like a flower that closes itself up each night but unfolds each morning to the promise of a new day.

One light, one life offers many possibilities this hour.

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  What are your prayers for yourself?

2.  What are your prayers for others?

3.  How is your life unfolding today?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

3:00am Glass of Water

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. -Mother Teresa

 

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.   Romans 13:8

My thirst awakens me.  I really do not want to get out of bed and go down the steps.  I lie still a little while longer but my thirst urges me up.  A few minutes later, I am in the kitchen finishing a glass of water, fully awake!  I decide to pour another glass and sit out front.  It is a beautiful summer night.  So quiet.  A few cars hum by, but other than that, silence.  No squirrels.  No squabbles.  This is a side of the city I do not often feel.

Then I see Roger.  He walks the neighborhood, sometimes the city, all day long, rarely with a destination.  I wanted to believe that he had a place to sleep at night.  I often invite him to help me in the garden or with something that needs to be done in the church. During this hour he walks over and sits.  “Baby, can I get a glass, too?”  I return to the small stoop with a glass of water, a turkey sandwich and a banana.  We don’t talk as he eats.  There are so many questions going through my mind that I have always wanted to ask him.  Somehow, I know this is not the time.  He thanks me when he is finished and goes on his way.  I watch him walk away in the opposite direction that he was headed before he stopped to sit.  I wonder if he knows where he is going.  I wonder what unfolds each night of his life.  He has no home but he is my neighbor.   He turns a corner and is no longer in sight.  Once again, I am alone, in my pajamas, on the stoop.

Merciful God, who has the power to quench all thirsts, I thank you for the opportunity to serve my brother this hour.  Protect and nourish all who wander city streets throughout the world. Open the hearts of those of us who have so much that we might respond to our sisters and brothers compassionately.

 This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  How do you quench your spiritual thirst?

2.  How are you called to quench the thirsts of others?

3.  Who in your neighborhood needs your compassion?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

3:00pm City Bus

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. -Confucius

 

The talk of fools is a rod for their backs, but the lips of the wise preserve them.

Proverbs 14:3

I am on the number thirty bus headed home from an afternoon meeting that has left a bad taste in my mouth.  Things simply did not go my way.  I am flipping through a magazine as the bus makes a downtown stop.  A man gets on who grabs my attention.  He is wearing a tattered t-shirt that I am sure was once white.  His homemade blue jean shorts have tears in the back exposing the inner pockets and his buttocks.  On his feet are flip flops that appear to be chewed on all sides.  His white face isn’t dirty, it is stained. 

Of course, he sits right in front of me; my seat facing west, his facing north.  I am joyfully surprised that his body does not emit a stench I had anticipated from such an appearance.  He turns to face me and has a question. “So, what have you learned?” 

Is he speaking to me?  I look behind me.  When I turn back around he is staring me straight in the eyes and asks again.  “So, what have you learned?  What have you learned on this journey today?  What has life taught you?”

I am stunned.  I sit still and reflective.  Another stop comes and others make their way to seats before I have an answer for him.  “I have learned to listen more and use fewer words.  I have learned to give more than I expect others to offer.  I have learned that sometimes the best gift I can give is silence.”

“Very good,” he responds as he stands.  “You are on your way,”

He exits at the next stop.

Sometimes…when I look back on those brief moments of that hour of that day, it all seems so unreal it makes me wonder if it ever really happened.

God of Surprises, I thank you for the many unexpected moments of awakening!  I thank you for the way you bring people into our lives to help us claim the things we need to accept about ourselves.  Keep them coming, Lord, keep them coming!

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  What have you learned so far on this journey today?

2.  What has life taught you?

3.  Who has been your teacher today?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

11:00am Grocery Cart

It's not differences that divide.  It's our judgements about each other that do.
-Margaret J. Wheatley

He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will wear.  For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.”  Luke 12:22 & 23

It contains everything he owns.  A winter coat, one sweatshirt, several t-shirts, another pair of pants.  A tattered blue blanket.  Several shoeboxes filled with stuff found over the months or years.  Assorted cans of food.  Day-old bread.  One small baseball bat.  A black garbage bag filled with aluminum cans.  Half of a flattened cardboard box… 

His mother’s family bible.  The real big kind with all of the family history inside; marriage and death dates, birth records.  Several dozen funeral bulletins are tucked inside.  We sit on the church steps as he goes through every one of them, sharing memories, telling stories of family and friends.  It is a brisk autumn morning but he does not appear to feel the wind. Besides, he has no where he needs to be. This is how this hour begins.

To carry your home, your life, with you everywhere you go; to just own what you can transport… As he continues to talk my mind drifts off.  I cannot help but think about the hundreds of storage units I pass by every week in this city, filled with furniture, clothing, books, stuff. I cannot help but to reflect on the dozen or so people I pass by each day pushing grocery carts down alleyways and city streets.  To have way more than you need.  To not have just enough of what you need; food, clothing, shelter, an honest living.

Almost two hours pass before he gets up to leave.  I offer him a few dollars “just in case something comes up,” I say to him.  He hesitates.  “You’ve already gave me a lot,” his words are slow and deliberate.  “No one has talked to me in weeks.”

O God, in this world of abundance you have created for us, some of us have claimed too much and many of us have access to little.  I thank you for reminding me this day that some of the most valuable things I have to share are my time, my compassion, my very presence. 

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  What do you need to share with others?

2.  What are you carrying that you need to unpack?

3.  Who needs you to hear their story?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?

9:00pm Bus Tickets

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. — Pema Chödrön

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Creator of lights.  James 1:17a

They need to leave town.  His sister has put them out and they need to get back home to another city.  But they really do not have a home to return to there, either.  A woman and man, both mid-twenties, with a two-year-old son.  No money.  No plan.  Just trying to get through the night.  This hour I need to buy bus tickets for a family I do not really know.

City bus tickets.  Greyhound bus tickets.  How many have I purchased over the years for so many people with no where to go?  No place of their own.  So many with just a vague destination.  A destination that usually reads Anywhere But Here.

I want to help this fractured family get to where they really need to be.  I want to help get them from chaos to stability, from excuses and shame to responsibility and honor.  I want to help transport them from disappointment to joy, from hopelessness to new life.  I want them to be ready to take that journey.  However, that is not possible this hour.  All I can do is get them out of town.

There are hugs, kisses and promises as they exit my van and head inside the bus station.  As I ride home, alone, my tears fall freely.  I am not sure if I really helped anyone tonight.

O Creator, You call us to enter into the lives of our sisters and brothers and simply give what we are able to give.  So many times I want to be the one who rescues and saves, forgetting that is a power only You have.  Guide my actions that I may be present in the lives of others, yet not expect too much of myself.  Remind me, in all situations, that whatever I have to give truly comes from You.

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  Who needs your help?

2.  How will you discern what you are able to give?

3.  What is it that you are not able to do?

4.  How is The Creator speaking to you this hour of this day?

The City Has A Soul

The city has a soul. 

A sacred soul. 

A broken soul. 

A soul that is always longing for nourishment. 

Seeking healing.

We each journey through the souls of our cities differently.  Some of us choose to mostly be afraid and only be concerned about reaching destinations. 

Others move through urban neighborhoods very carefully.  They see and feel but do not know how to respond.  They keep passing through.

Still others dive into the complexity of city life head first and well-intentioned, eventually to wake up one day overwhelmed, frustrated, burnt out too soon.

I choose to simply linger. 

I choose to linger and to see what it is the city needs to say to me. 

Has to offer me. 
Requires from me. 

I choose to be fully present and to take the pulse of the city. 

I dance to its rhythms and move with its beating heart.  I claim its sorrows and its celebrations! 

I choose to honor each urban hour as blessed in its brokenness. 

Blessed in its bounty. 

Blessed in the beauty that is city life. 

Don’t let the hours of each day pass you by without acknowledging the fullness within.  The opportunity. 

The challenge. 

The calling. 

The gift.

This blog offers meditations, reflections, questions for you to ponder, based on my very real experiences of hours gone by...and hours yet to come.

You may want to claim a journal for your Urban Hours journey with me.

You may want to claim more spiritual space in your life.

Welcome!

Venice