Our hospital system created a short daily video for our coworkers during the last few months. With many working from home, and with the changes and risk we were facing (and still do), some stories of coworkers and a daily prayer from a chaplain became an encouraging time.

Below is one of my recent prayers from the Daily Dose, reflecting what happens at our work, but possibly in your life, too.

(The photo is from the day my boss caught me sharing a prayer from a proof copy of  “God. We Need You.” A Year of Prayer in a Hospital Chapel. In one way, reading from my own book felt odd. However, the words that day captured the cry of my heart that day.

And that’s what written prayer can do. It can give words to what we can’t express. That’s even true for my own words.)

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God-

The easiest thing in the world is to get frustrated. 

To get frustrated with ourselves when we can’t do what we think we know how to do. 

To get frustrated with others when they don’t do what we think they should.

To get frustrated with you when you don’t fix what we think you should. 

When we’re stretched thin with fatigue and worry, 

it’s harder to stay encouraged. 

So today, I ask you to encourage our hearts. 

Even when others seem to make our work harder, help us to understand their lives, to provide for their needs, to find satisfaction and even delight in our good work. 

And in our frustration, speak your peace, I ask.

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

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My book, “God. We Need You.” is out this week. It’s a year’s worth of Sunday prayers that start, as you might suspect, with “God.” I’d love for you to take a look at it and buy it if it looks helpful.