Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
A message from above
Yesterday was an important day in Unity churches. September 14 was designated as “World Day of Prayer”, and this is a day devoted to the power of prayer and meditation. Unity churches around the world were open for anyone wanting prayer, or needing prayer. Some were open all night the night before and all day yesterday. Unity prayer chaplains were in attendance to pray individually with people, then on the hour, a chaplain would recite the Unity prayer service.
The service lasted about 10 minutes and was made up of affirmations, a brief message to follow, then a period of silence. My favorite one was this one: “The road ahead may be unseen, but I walk by faith and not by sight.” Then came this message: “Easily I breathe, trusting in every ordered step forward. By the perceiving power of faith, I never have to submit to worry. Instead, I perceive the underlying and pervasive presence of God, of Good, as I take my next steps forward. I walk by faith…”. All day I thought of that hymn that I learned in another church, whose music and lyrics were put together in the 1800’s by Henry Alford, a staunch Anglican. The concept of trusting in what cannot be seen was part of Paul’s 2d letter to the Corinthians. “So we are always of good courage…for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
It was very quiet in our sanctuary. One of us was available to pray if someone needed individual prayer. The other chaplain spent an hour praying over prayer slips written out by members of the congregation. We prayed for the people mentioned all day long. Today we will send the slips to Silent Unity in Lee’s Summit, where they will be prayed over for 30 days. That is a massive undertaking considering that Unity churches all over the country will be sending in their prayer requests.
I write a blog about Unity, and about my particular church, as often as I can think of what to say. This year I am on the Board as the treasurer. That means I get the monthly reports about Revenue and Expenses. Like many other churches, when the pandemic warnings were lifted, our sanctuary is not nearly as full as it used to be. We often walk the razor’s edge of financial difficulty, and this is especially when we must walk by faith. As a Board, we have difficult conversations ahead about how to navigate these tight times. We have responsibly lowered our expenses as much as possible, but it is a big building and the utility bills alone are staggering.
I have been concerned, even though in good Unity fashion I pray for prosperity for our church and its members. But sometimes the worry overcomes me and I face reality with a lump in my throat. I think of us as a small Board, trying to put out little fires everywhere. So yesterday, in the sanctuary, I was sitting by the window worrying about the church but waiting to pray for whoever might appear. Out of the corner of my eye I spied a huge fire truck in the parking lot, with two fire fighters standing at our front door. Reverend Jan went to see what this was all about. Turns out they wanted to take pictures of our church so the fire district guys could be familiar with the interior if they ever got called for an emergency.
I couldn’t help but start to laugh. Here I was, praying for abundance to manifest in the face of our difficulties, worrying about what financial blaze would come next and what we needed to do about it. And who shows up on World Day of Prayer but a shiny Mehlville fire truck and two fire fighters? This is how I know that God has a huge sense of humor.