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Building One Another


E. Stanley Ott

LABOR Vol 8 No 34

September 8, 2009

Dear Friend,

   

In his "Diary of Private Prayer" John Baillie offers a prayer on behalf of:

"the overworked who have no joy of leisure

the unemployed who have no joy of labor"*

 

In our day that prayer seems to capture just about everyone of us!

 

Those of us who are employed are exceptionally grateful for the work we have been given to do. 

At the same time we often allow the manic nature of our day to move us to over function.  We can be consumed by the very work that is God's gift to use our energies and meet our needs.

 

Those of us who are unemployed can find ourselves feeling adrift and detached from normal life. We can feel depressed by our sense of need, our uncertainty concerning the path to take and our general feeling of malaise.

 

Yet the One whose eye is on the sparrow is the Lord whose eye is on you and me.  "The poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble." Psalm 34:6**

 

So may we the overworked and may we the unemployed pray for ourselves, pray for those whose lot is similar to our own and pray for those whose need appears to be the opposite of ours.

 

As John Baillie concludes his prayer, "And grant Thy mercy on them all!"

 

With joy - E. Stanley Ott

Copyright 2009 E. Stanley Ott     

*Morning prayer for the sixth day of the month               

**Scripture from the NRSV