Sabbath Prayer: Week 5

As we mentioned four weeks ago, each summer we take a Sabbath break from the Word From Below reflections. Instead, we are inviting you to pray with us. (We will resume our normal Word From Below reflections in September).

Here are two prayers that have been helping form us in our call to develop incarnational leaders: The Prayer of Vocation grounds us in our particular call, and the Prayer of Discernment helps us discern the move of the Spirit at work in us and our network.

We invite you to pray one or both of these with us.

Prayer Request (Each week we offer a new prayer)
This week we are praying for our good friend and colleague Joel Van Dyke and his family. Joel’s mother passed this week. We at Street Psalms are captivated by a big vision — developing incarnational leaders — but we also have personal lives to live. That’s why we pause and give thanks for our good friend Joel and his family, and especially for the life of his mother. We talk a lot about being “midwives to the holy.” Joel stepped into that vocation this past week.

Jesus insists that death is not a dead end, but a birthing process that brings forth new life. Like any birthing process, some are harder than others. Mrs. Van Dyke’s passing was a hard one and Joel was deeply involved. He was midwife to the holy. It’s a high calling for sure and it’s not for the faint of heart. Thanks to Joel for modeling our vocation with such grace and courage and prayers for all of us who find ourselves in similar situations.

Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.”

– Mary Oliver, Thirst

Kris Rocke
Executive Director
Street Psalms