The following prayer is reprinted with permission from the book Prayers for The New Social Awakening, ed. Christian Iosso and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty.
O God, we pray for all those in recovery whose demons are kept at bay one day at a time;
for those clean twenty-four hours and wondering if they will make it another day;
for those in the middle of ninety meetings in ninety days;
for those whose years clean and sober are like a resurrection from the dead.
We acknowledge
all the times they cannot remember and the days of pain they will never be able to forget;
the families that they lost and the community that they have found;
the lives they have now that they once could not even have imagined.
We remember those who tried and did not make it. We pray for all those still out there using today. We pray also for all of us whose addiction is not heroin but money; not cocaine but nationalism, not alcohol but ego. May we be ruthlessly honest with ourselves and willing to admit our need for you and for others.
O God, when your people wandered in the wilderness, you nourished them one day at a time. When Jesus and his friends asked you for what they really needed, it was bread for today. We confess that there are days when this one-day-at-a-time business seems like very little, but we are grateful that there are days when it seems like more than enough.
Let this day be one of those.
Amen.
*****
Clark, Mike. “For Those Battling Demons.” In Prayers for The New Social Awakening, edited by Christian Iosso and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, 45-46. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008.
AUTHOR BIO: Mike Clark is pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Watertown, Massachusetts. He was formerly the Co-Director of the Riverside Church Disarmament program and Executive Director of Witness for Peace. His current ministry includes significant involvement with folks in recovery.
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