Snowbowl’s Gathering 1/7/23

Oh my God, gather me to be with You as You are with me…Especially in this Philip- loved place of snowy slopes. Where my heart is heavy and light with the memories of him on the anniversary of his going. I smile at the shine of new sunlight on snow that the wind blows effortlessly in soft billows. The brisk coldness invigorates; the excitement of the hill bursts forth, uncontainable, on the faces around me and on mine own. It is a glorious day to celebrate as it is a sorrowful one deep inside. A mysterious mixture of mayhem and melody in this dance of my life. May I embody both as a picture of Your indescribable gathering coming together, like light on snowpack, invigorating. 

Gather me to be with You

O God, gather me to be with You as You are with me.
Soothe my tiredness; curb my aimlessness; relieve my compulsiveness;
let me be easy for a moment.

O Lord, release me
from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly;
from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip, that I may be open to receiving what You give, to risking something genuinely new, to learning something refreshingly different.

O God, gather me to be with You as You are with me.
Forgive me
for claiming so much for myself
that I leave no room for gratitude;
for confusing exercises in self-importance
for complaining so much of my burdens that I become a burden;
with acceptance of self-worth; for competing against others so insidiously that I stifle celebrating them and receiving your blessing through their gifts.

O God, gather me to be with You as You are with me.
Keep me in touch with myself, with my needs,
my anxieties,
my angers,
my pains,
my corruptions,
that I may claim them as my own rather than blame them on someone else.

O Lord, deepen my wounds into wisdom;
shape my weaknesses into compassion;
gentle my envy into enjoyment, my fear into trust, my guilt into honesty, my accusing fingers into tickling ones.

Oh My God, gather me to be with You as You are with me.
Ted Loder’s Guerrillas of Grace
” Gather me to be with You”
Page 76