Yours, O Lord, is the day. Yours also is the night.

Yesterday we had Christmas brunch at our President's house. The warm hospitality of Dr. Husbands and Becky, and their generous spirits, give me continued hope and role models for how Christian lives are lived out in the warmth of encouragement, blessing, and fellowship for greater causes the Lord has called us to.  Both of them model this, and the executive team received a liturgical devotional book titled "Every Moment Holy".   I started reading it and have been glued to it, and the author Douglas McKlevey's words from one particular liturgy for the "One who works the night shift" spoke to me in my quiet time this morning. Having, in the past, managed teams globally after a day job at night, this resonates somehow... though the prayers are so good they could work for all laborers, day or night. Both belong to the Lord :) 

Yours, O Lord, is the day. Yours also is the night. 

While others have moved through
The work of the day, I have slept, keeping a counter rhythm
as the bustled hummed around me. 

Now, as the day declines and I rise,
Bless the rest I have had, O Lord,
and multiply its effects in my body,
For I am weary, and the fog of sleepiness seems always to hang about me. 

The edges fray, O Lord, for I am one
who keeps time in two worlds:
a hand in the day,
a hand in the night, 
circling, circling.
The evening is as morning to me, and the morning marks the dawn of the night. 

But all hours you are with me.
At all hours, you are at once working and resting as you rule over your creation.
Somehow, by the mysterious working of your Holy Spirit, let me be at work and also
at rest in you this night. 

O Christ Our Light, 
all hours belong to you.
You made the sun to rule the day and the moon to govern the night. 

Help me to find an ally in the moon-
that light that shines because it mirrors
a greater light. May my own life reflect,
however partially, you, O Light of the World. 

Often, work is itself a mirror,
reflecting to me something about myself
I would not otherwise notice.
Help me to see myself more honestly,
both my strengths and my weaknesses,
and to trust that you are at work in my life
As I work this night. 

Yours O Lord,m is the day,
Yours also is the night. 

And I pray you would meet me, O Lord,
As you often meet your children,
in the night hours:

Under a dark sky, you gave
Abraham your promise
All night long, Jacob wrestled with you to receive a blessing. 
Nicodemus came to you under the cover of darkness,
Lord Christ, seeking to know you better.
And you, Jesus, labored in prayer through the night
and knew the loneliness of those hours:
       "Watch with me," you said.
Even you had to steel yourself for the work
That was yours to do. 

And so, I join the company of those who have gone
before me into the labor of the night hours,
which is also the vigil.
May my work be prayer, and in and through it
May I keep company with you, Lord Christ?

Be with me and my beloved ones (my insert)
O Christ, for the work of this night.
Bless them and keep them.
Make your face shine upon them.
And be gracious to them.
Turn your face towards us and give us your Shalom.

I lift to you the work ahead, that which is known, 
and that which is unknown to me. 

There is nothing that comes tonight (or this morn/day)
That is a surprise to you; all is known to you.
So I entrust myself to you, Lord God:
Heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

I trust you with those I love, from whom?
I am absent as I work. Bless their day or sleep that they enjoy,
Keep watch over them while I am away. When they feel afraid 
or are gripped by worry for my well-being
and are tempted to imagine the worst,
May your Spirit minister comfort, like
a warm hand on their back. 

And when we feel the pain of aloneness begotten by our opposite schedules,
May we find a way to turn toward one another, reach through the fatigue, and
show each other loving attention and gentleness. 

Grant me then the grace to be ware of your faithful presence: You who are always at once working
and resting as you rule over your creation.
And when the daylight comes,
Help me receive from your sleep, I need.
to wake at nightfall (or in the morn), and again
keep watch with you. 

Yours, O Lord, is the day.
Yours also is the night. 

Amen Amen  

May this prayer be a blessing to you as it has been for me. Dr. Sam Kurien