As I shared earlier, I am getting in on this Lent bandwagon.  I am actually very excited about the chance to focus the next several weeks on reflection, generosity, and increased scripture reading and prayer.  How can that be bad?
One thing that I am using to go through this season is a book that I also mentioned yesterday.  It is called by Stanley Hauerwas. I will be reading these prayers, in addition to scripture, and reflecting on them throughout the day.
I want to share something that he wrote on the book-flap.
If anything, these prayers are plain.  They are so because I discovered I could not pray differently than I speak.  In other words, I thought it would be a mistake to try to assume a different identity when I prayed.  I figured… that God could take it, because God did not need to be protected.  I think I leaned this over the years by praying the Psalms in church. God does not want us to come to the altar differently from how we live the rest of our lives.  Therefore I do not try to be pious or use pious language in these prayers.  I try to speak plainly, yet I hope with some eloquence, since nothing is more eloquent than simplicity.† Stanley Hauerwas
Here is today’s prayer…
LORD ALMIGHTY, Â we say we want to serve you, we saw we want to help others less fortunate than ourselves, we say we want justice. Â but the truth is, we want power and status because we so desperately need to be loved. Â Free us from our self-fascination and the anxious activity it breeds, so that we might be what we say we want to be — loved by you and thus capable of unselfish service. AMEN.” Â Stanley Hauerwas
