Control we never had

We work, we play
    We think we have it together
Then one day
    We are forced to let go
        of the lies and recognize
Life is fragile.
    We gather
our memories and our hopes,
    in a basket made of grass
    that withers before the future is past.
Then bit by bit
    control slips from our hands
    and we choose to ride
    the wild winds
    or hold fast, fingers clenched
    white lipped, fear hanging
to a tree limb above the cliff.

August 5th, 2011
Elena Huegel

I will let go and ride the wild winds on Monday as I climb into the plane and fly overnight back to Chile.  I ask for your prayers as once again, I let go!  As the Rev. BTP wrote before my new commissioning as a missionary last week:

I invite you to reflect on what you thought you were commissioned to each time you spoke those words of acceptance, Here I am, Lord.  Send me!  And also to reflect on what you actually ended up being commissioned to and for.

Could you have imagined five years ago, that your primary ministry for these past years, would have been to help to lift people up after the earthquake?  And yet, you were able to because of all that had gone before...(the Shalom Center, the trauma training, the relationships of trust you had built).  So when the moment came, you were ready.

I can't even imagine what these next four years will bring.  Here is my prayer.
O Creator of all things, Wisdom of the Universe, the one who speaks through the magnificence of the natural world around us, be with Elena and sustain her.  Give her spaces in each day, so that she can see you in the commas and periods and question marks of her daily rhythm.   Grant her moments of listening and work and accomplishment, and moments of play and quiet and renewal.  Give her times of plenty and abundance, and times of want and simplicity and emptiness.  Bring music to her ears, and silence to her heart.  Give her companionship, and the companionship of your company.  Guard her family while she is away from them, that she might be released to serve you.
Let her "yes" be an unequivocal "yes" for those things she is called to do, no matter how difficult they might be; and let her "no" be a resounding "no" to those things she is not called to do and be.  And grant her the wisdom to know the difference between the two.

We ask all these things in your holy name,

Amen.