Saturday, April 12
Gathering up the Fragments
Rev. Brandon Blacksten
Reading
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
Reflection
Each week at Pray Together during Lent, we’ve been exploring different ways of praying. This week’s prayer practiced is called the prayer of recollection. The prayer is a way of asking God to “re-collect” our fragmented and distracted souls. Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes, “A recollected soul is the opposite of a distracted, fragmented soul. It is a soul collected and at rest with God.”
This practice strikes me as one that we desperately need in our distracted and fragmented lives, and I want to share it with you and invite you to pray it this morning. You’ll need 5-10 minutes, a piece of paper or notebook, and something to write with, so gather what you need, read through Calhoun’s instructions once, and then begin to follow them one by one:
- Take some deep breaths, relaxing your body and quieting your mind.
- Offer yourself to God. Ask him to gather up the fragments of your scattered life and recollect your soul.
- Rest before him. When distracting thoughts come up, write down one word that expresses your distraction.
- Let the thought go and return to your rest in God.
- After ten minutes look at the words you have jotted down. What stands out to you? What anxieties do you see? Where is your identity centered?
- Confess that you are not called to control all that disrupts your life. Return these concerns to the Lord. Let him hold the concerns of your heart as you rest in him.
Close with this prayer:
God, we are not called to control
All that disrupts our lives,
And that is wonderful news,
Because we cannot control those things anyway,
No matter how much we pretend otherwise.
Help us release control,
To allow you to gather up the fragments of our life
And to trust you with them,
So that we might rest in you
Today and always.
Amen.
