Sunday, December 26, 2021

Slow Me Down, Lord

Scripture: Matthew 11:28 (NRSV) - "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Message: During the 1940s, my grandfather, Reverend Albert O Loeber, drove hundreds of miles a week from one Idaho church to another to share the love of Jesus Christ. Although exciting, I imagine the life of a Methodist Circuit Rider Preacher was likely very exhausting.

When I was a teenager, my grandfather shared the following poem with me:

Slow me down, Lord
ease the pounding of my heart
by the quieting of my mind.

Steady my hurried pace
with a vision of the eternal march of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day,
the calmness of the everlasting hills.

Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles
with the soothing music of the singing streams
that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep.

T each me the art of taking minute vacations,
of slowing down to look at a flower,
to chat with a friend, to pat a dog,
to read a few lines from a good book.

ore each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise,
that I May know that the race is not always to the swift -
That there is more to life than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak
and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord,
and inspire me to send my roots
deep into the soil of life's enduring values
that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.

Turkish prayer translated by: Wilfred Arlan Peterson or Orin L Crain
published in Prayers of a Pilgrim in 2015

Prayer: Lord, Thank You for carrying our heavy burdens and for providing rest. Amen.

Karisa Workman

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