Have you ever used the self-checkout at the grocery store, and you are scanning your items, putting them in bags, and happily not needing the attendant when all of sudden for no apparent reason, the scanner stops working and announces, “Help is on the way!” and the light starts flashing. The attendant comes to get you going again. I usually laugh and say, ‘I didn’t even know I needed help!’
It occurred to me this is quite the metaphor for we humans going about our daily lives! We can get so busy ‘scanning and doing’ that we may not pay attention to our inner needs; to what may be disturbing the calm peace of our souls. We don’t know we need some help and sometimes it goes on until our light starts flashing; in the form of a physical dis-ease, emotional stress, being short with others, or tears in our eyes that we don’t understand. But YOU are the help that’s on the way…when you pray.
The 32nd Annual Unity World Day of Prayer is September 10-11. The theme this year is ‘Be Still and Know’. The guiding prayer this year is one of stillness and knowing. In part it reads, “To be still is not to do nothing—it is to release the need to struggle, to let go of the noise that clouds my mind, and to settle into the deep presence of God within me.” And how do we do this? Through prayer. Get quiet; breathe in and release; be open to the infinite possibilities of the Divine working in and through you. Focus on peace; perhaps ask, “What do I need to know?” And listen. “The answers unfold in divine timing. The path reveals itself in perfect order. There is no rush, only trust. No force, only faith.”
I hope you will join us for our World Day of Prayer Service on Thursday, September 11. More details are in this eNews. In the meantime, through the ‘stillness of prayer, you awaken to divine wisdom.’ And so it is.
Peace, love, and JOY! ~ Susan Green, Prayer Chaplain
