A bit of a preface, comrade friends………..
Today I bring us a prayer. The words and heartcry were inspired by Ann Voskamp’s upcoming new book, Waymaker.
In a bit of news, two-fold, I am part of an internship group with Ann Voskamp for the duration of 2022 AND our group was graced with an early manuscript reading of Waymaker. I am delighted.

Waymaker is soul-stirring beautiful. As I read, I highlighted and resonated with so many emotions and experiences that comprise a life lived. Ann shares what she calls the internal EPS – Expectational Positioning System- and how often life doesn’t follow our expectations and we find ourselves disappointedly rerouting yet again. I love this because I see this so very much as I look back over my life at dreams and hopes quietly laid down or abruptly dashed from my hands.

Another part deeply impactful to me is when Ann speaks of our choseness.
She says: “Where there’s choseness, there isn’t aloneness.” and “God chooses to love you simply because He chooses you to love, God wants to be with you because He wants to be with you, He hesed-loves you because He hesed-loves you, and this is the perfect circular logic of Love.”

Waymaker is deeply moving in its vulnerability, truth, and compassion. It continually points us to our True North, our need for the One Who Makes the Way. Through her story, hardships, heartaches, and rejoicings Ann brings us alongside, reminding us of how chosen we are in Him and how gratitude and grace intersect, binding our hearts in His.

This book is for the weary, the walking wounded, the wanderer, the weeping, the waylaid.
The words will speak rest and renewal, empathy and encouragement, truth and triumph.

This brings us to our prayer……………..

A PRAYER FOR THOSE IN NEED OF A WAY THROUGH THE WAVES

Our Father ~You see us.
You see whatever is capsizing our souls –
Every need. Every desire. Every care. Every effort. Every burden.
Our details matter to you.

You are making a way through, of this we can be completely sure, even when on the surface all feels unsteady and completely unsure.

We have been tossed.
We have lost, in all manner of ways, what was dear.
Places we perceived as steady have shaken -Some fallen away. Some fragilely remaining.

But in the stirring, the roaring, the plunging, the crashing, we are reminded of Your approach to Elijah.
Your eyes never left him.
Your ear was never deaf to him.
You sought him.
You came to him, in a still, small voice, a hum, a whisper.

You come to us in the cacophony, the chaos, the confusion.
You whisper,
M Y B E L O V E D.

I saw you from the moment I fashioned you.
I sent The Way to make a way.
I hold you in all the ways you may go.
My ways are not your ways.
Though you can not see a way through, I am right here, bringing it to be.
For when you pass through the waters I will not let them submerge you.
I baptize you in the blessing of my grace.
Your faith need only be as mighty as a mini mustard seed.

Don’t let go.
Keep clinging. Keep turning. Keep praying. Keep pouring out your heartcries to me.
The Way Through, He has walked on water and calmed the storms.
The Way Through was there at the creation of wind and waves, lightning and thunder.
The Way Through holds hope and peace and joy in open palms.

O Lord, we thank you for Jesus, our Way Through,
For the way you always make a way through,
for fellow sojourners to link arms with on our way through.
Truly and Amen