Piloting Faith: Langston Hughes teaches us a lesson on what we should never do...

A Word for the Day...

Langston Hughes, the man we now know as an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist, almost didn't have the chance to become any of these things. His father was set on him studying engineering. The only way that he would pay for Hughes' education was if he agreed to study engineering while also pursuing his writing on the side. Hughes agreed.

He once said, "I have discovered in life there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to get there."

Consider the places you want to go in your life. What do you long to do, to become, in this life? What great work resides within you?

We all have to spend time doing the things we must to earn the privilege of doing the things we need. What we must never do: sacrifice our greatest work, that which is our unique offering to the world. Pay the bills, but remember that your gift to the rest of us is that which makes your soul sing.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Prayer for the Week

Gracious God, we find ourselves in abundance. We feel great sadness but also great love in our world. We worry about those who feel forgotten; we worry about the people who tell stories of persecution because their difference is seen as criminal. We turn to you, Holy Creator, to free us from worry and to bless our hurting neighbors with abundant kindness.

We pray for the unemployed and the unpaid.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for families: couples who are marrying, women who are pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, couples who are divorcing, the caregivers, and the ones needing care.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for all who work for justice and for all who seek the truth.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for the people improving our communities: the blood, bone marrow, and organ donors; the educators; the volunteers; and the funders.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for the people who feed us: the hands in the fields and on the farms, the hands that package and test foods, and the hands that cook meals.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for those working in health care and for those in their care, for the hungry and the obese, for the disabled, and for those who are healing.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for all people making difficult choices.
Bless them, O Lord.

We pray for those who are at the end: the coming home, the graduating, the retiring, the grieving, and the dying.
Bless them, O Lord.

We thank you for the abundance of grace you give to each of us so that we may give grace to the world.
Bless us, O Lord. Amen.

*Adapted from http://worldinprayer.org/.