Communion Sunday, working the pages looking for a hymn number, and opening a little "off" the number, I noticed a prayer I had never seen before, at No. 564, from the Chinese church.
For the Unity of Christ's Body
Help each of us, gracious God, to live in such magnanimity and restraint,
that the Head of the church may never have cause to say to any one of us,
"This is My Body, broken by you." Amen.
Well, if you put it THAT way, and say THAT to God in prayer, life suddenly gets very serious, or in the old phrase, fraught with possibilities.
It reminds of Bishop Paul Martin's story of the nervousness of his first appointment to a small church. At the end of the "shake hands and welcome the preacher" time, a man stepped to him, and spoke softly:
"Preacher, I have a gift! I can spot a man's weakness right off." The Bishop said he tried not to show any anxiety at that point (not an easy thing). The man continued: "And that's just where I get under him in prayer and lift him up, hold him up as best as God and I can do it." The Bishop said it was almost impossible to express, even toward the end of his ministry, just how powerful that moment actually was.
One statement with the power to strengthen a lifetime, that's the power God gives our conversations. To lift or break, that's how significant every gathering, every encounter can be.
A prayer from an unknown Chinese Christian, a promise from an un-named man in a tiny church, a word from you or me that God uses in a strong moment. These are the things that hold out huge possibilities and value for us. Thank God.
Blessings.
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