God.

We are not quite ready to despair, most of us.

But some moments we come close.
We come close to simply running out.
Our bodies run out. Our courage runs out. Our creativity runs out. Our love, our patience, our forgiveness. We are running out.
And there is almost nothing we read or watch that gives us deep delight. It mostly distracts and disturbs us.

We confess.
We confess that fatigue feels like failure.
We confess that our anxiety is bigger than our faith.

We acknowledge that our attention shrinks to the size of the pain in front of us, the discomfort we want to remove, the annoyance we are experiencing through no fault of anyone else. And we know that sometimes this is what being human means, that pain overwhelms us.
But we confess that sometimes we allow the desire for comfort and the annoyance with others to overwhelm us.

We confess that we want our deepest desire to be for you and that we don’t know how to want anything that much.

God, help us.

In our despair, give us your hope.
In our worry, give us your peace.
In our distraction, give us your purpose.
In our fatigue, give us your rest.

In our new day, give us your eternal presence.

Through Christ our Lord,

Amen.

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Joel 2:23-32; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18