Prague – Innerdialects

Michael, Writer of Haikus he collects from moments between days, sent in this Beauty that graphically describes human query. “What’s your Title ?” I asked.

He replied,”‘Hope in our lament’? Though, ‘A Psalm of Lament‘* , has more advantage in simplicity…”

Amazed by God’s faithfulness and grace, especially over long-term mental health problems, he finds God in the pages of Scripture and in cups of coffee. Psalm 139 is his favourite place in the Word.

*A PSALM OF LAMENT

In fire and grief
Orphans are made
Oh Lord, Your tears are in their hearts
For You say “…visit orphans and widows in their troubles“
And, Lord, You do.

In isolation and despair
Loneliness is made
Oh Lord, You are so near
For You say “…there is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother”
And, Lord, You do.

In chaos and chemicals
Addiction is made
Oh Lord, You liberate
For You say “He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives…”
And, Lord, You do.

In stress and exhaustion
Breakdowns are made
Oh Lord, Your compassion descends
For You say “I will give them rest.”
And, Lord, You do.

In greed and corruption
Injustice is made
Oh Lord, Your Spirit is fierce
For You say “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.”
And, Lord, You do.

But we grieve for the orphan
With tears that feel unceasing

We grieve for the friendless
With such a cry of emptiness

We grieve for the addicted
With such a raging storm within

We grieve for those burned-out in life
With such a totality of weariness

And we grieve for the oppressed
With such a cry of anguish and bewilderment

With all creation we groan for our deliverance
We see no end to this suffering
Before the New Heaven and New Earth
And we wonder ‘do You even care?’
Oh, Lord, You do.

….

Written by Michael, U.K. “It is beautiful what we can learn (the rocks are what you climb on) but no less painful, though the Spirit alleviates.”

Photo Credit *Marija R. Prague*.

Thankyou **Michael** for your verse that wrings in Hope. You’ve startled me into staring at the Energy of God freely accessible to human need.

Wishing you a blessed 2021!

Innerdialects.

Today I prayed with Marija- Serb/Russian- she in an empty church (Prague), me here in my Indian Lockdown. We could not talk: Marija had a cough and is much better though still cannot speak. We text- prayed, in a beautiful silence.

**Where Marija prayed today with me and her phone**.

***

She is a gorgeous girl with a heart of gold; a classical pianist. A star all by herself and as we pray she introduces me to the whole new world we all are in: a world that has crept closer than ever before in a silence that reeks with fear and need: a silence that demands to be filled. We pray for her friend Serg. who is recovering from the worst: for the little children in her classroom and others even here. We go to the altar of an earth keeling; we have no words enough. We have no pride left, no ambition and self. We are as one, muted, stunned into new needs. Has Heaven changed? No.

***

It is the same light in Czechoslovakia that also will fall here a few hours from now. We all still spin around the same sun. It falls on us all the same way; the way it fell for centuries.

Emptied pews, memoirs of finger prints and feet that went through these places; tears, laughter, weddings, babies, christenings, flowers, sermons in candle lit shadows rising to the rafters like hymns;

now they are wooden witness to Marija’s whispers as she kneels for her Prague and my India and all our nations and friends and peoples….

…varnished mahogany(?) gleaming in the flash of Marija’s phone. I’d asked for a few pictures. We have never personally met, but she is blog friend and fellow prayerer at Haven Fellowship.

There are angels in marble here and there in life, in cathedrals and parks. And there’s us. We aren’t angels, we are real time people with lungs and whispers. So we pray for each other; for employment issues and food, for healing and cure; for peace and the knowledge of the saving grace of God that knows no death.

M.& I finish praying but I realise the prayer must go on like a back burner, even though we say Amen via WhatsApp and go on to dinner here. Monsoon is good this year maybe; there’s a rose bud in our balcony. New sapling from forgotten pots; like prayers they lift their stems to a laden sky. No we didnot see any Neo-comet. We saw a family of parrots in gaudy green & blood red beaks. Everything looks like prayers to me. Everything seems to be asking heaven for its Saviour:

as I write this it’s all I can think of. Yes I’m praying for us all, that more than life and death we will experience the Love of God that transcends our very need for mortality. And that He will make a way for us to feel for each other in prayer. In the end it’s the most powered possession humanity owns.

(Below: Marija, playing WayMaker).

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ” John 3:16. The Bible.