Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our venti, soy, low foam 120-degree triple shot latte. Give us this day enough gas for the SUV, and the car, and the kids’ car. Give us enough to pay all the bills for our average 2598 square foot home, and help us in the few years it will take before we can afford the mortgage. Give us the ability to have our home perfectly heated and perfectly cooled, so we are never out of comfort.
Give us this day the ability to deal with these overflowing garbage cans. Give us the strength to carry around this body, filled to the brim and bursting with too much food, and to find the time to drive to the gym to burn the excess calories. Give us this day our social media statistics, our daily steps, our sleep tracker and word count and text notifications. Give us time to find rest in a week where every minute is filled with errands and drives and work and media.
Give us this day the wisdom to deal with all our stuff, the energy to meet all our commitments, and the time to do all that we should.
Give us this day our wheat-free, dairy-free, fat-free radicchio-kabocha-spelt germ fermented millet romano bean flour artisan bread from that place on 5th. And the right cheeses. And the right wine to pair.
And forgive us our debts….
A Pilgrim in Narnia 
So you’re saying the time between Halloween and New Years is not the only time we become overtaken by materialism and consumerism…? 😉 Hang in there, fellow Pilgrim. Fight back with intentional acts of kindness and senseless beauty–you never know how they will boost another’s spirit at just the right time.
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Thanks Wayne!
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Thank you for the frequently needed conviction of heart and values–I speak for myself.
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This would be funny, IF it weren’t so true.
Thankfully, being a reader and not a socializer helps reduce the temptations.
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Yeah, perhaps. But I could have put “sagging bookshelves” on my prayer!
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🙂
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Hopefully there are, even in North America, those who know the Lord did not teach His disciples to pray for anything temporal or earthly…that it is not the bread that perishes that we are to ask to be fed….
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Hello Jeannette, your comment really intrigued me. I suspect that there are some–even in North America, as soaked in “things” as any culture has been–who believe that Jesus never taught us to pray for tangible, earthly things. But I don’t know that that is what the gospel picture is. This prayer is about earth and heaven, and bread is needed for the day. Christ asks us to take risks upon the road, not knowing what may come. But this doesn’t contrast with asking for earthly necessities. I pray for my family’s health, and that God will make up the shortfall, and that I can find my way to the work I want to do. I think earthly things are good; God made them, after all.
My concern is that we have confused what is necessary with what is essential.
You have a lovely blog name, by the way–and apt for this discussion.
Brenton
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Ouch. The truth hurts, sometimes….
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Yes, I wrote the “average” of America, but only what is true of me.
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