Anna Friend, Gill Holt, is taking the opportunity of a pause at home, due to coronavirus, to pray for people. She's working her way through her church directory at Christ Church, Chislehurst, Kent. The exercise has inspired this, a poem/prayer which we offer as an encouragement in testing times:
Try not to let fear have the power over you,
Just pray about everything the whole day through,
If you start to become afraid then start to rejoice,
Sing out loud as God loves to hear your voice.
Listen to the experts telling us what to do,
Because none of us, to be honest, have a clue,
Knock at neighbours and explain Psalm 91,
And how God loves us by sending his only Son.
Look at the blossom on the trees and buds coming out,
It just seems a bit surreal that people are not about,
People cutting the grass, the smell is in the air,
Take in the beauty of nature that is out there.
Ring or write to a friend you haven’t heard from for a while,
Pass someone in the street and give them a little smile,
Use this extra time in the way God wanted us to live,
To be there for one another, showing how much we can give.
I’m praying again today for those whose surname begins with B,
Even those who have left the church, and tomorrow I start on C!
If you have any thoughts and prayers, then post them on here,
Sending my love to you all, praying that the end to this virus is near.
Amen.
We may not be permitted to knock on our neighbours' doors to visit in quite the ways we used to before lockdown, but we can be linked through the power of prayer. Gill's initiative is another way that Anna Chaplaincy is reaching out to those who might be feeling most vulnerable at present.
Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honour them.
With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation.
Psalm 91:14–16 (NRSV)