By the Waters of the Levee

Gathering (Adapted from "When the Wind Blows")

Leader: When willows bow and snap under the weight of the wind…
People: Lord, we come to you with broken hearts.

Leader: When the words "catastrophic event" describe a current event
rather than the movie of the week…
People: Lord, we come to you with broken hearts.

Leader: When congregations of raindrops become inland streams
flowing where they will…
People: Lord, we come to you with broken hearts.

Leader: When the streets are littered with wet teddy bears,
broken dishes, and shattered dreams…
People: Lord, we come to you with broken hearts.

Leader: When the wind blows both the substance and
potential of our lives in giant swirls…
All: Lord, we come to you with broken hearts.
Hear us calling as we share the brokenness
of those who are suffering in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

By the Waters of the Levee
(Inspired by Psalm 137)

By the waters of the levee we sit and weep as we remembered our homes.

Having lost our accordions,
our fiddles,
our family pictures,
our journals where we recorded the stories of our lives…
we huddle in arenas waiting for food and water to arrive.

Our rescuers ask us to be patient,
help is on its way,
sing a song to bide the time.

But how can we sing songs,
when all we have,
our past and our future, is buried in the deluge?

How can we play our Zydeco and our Jazz,
when around us lie the dead and the dying?

Let our hearts sorrow…
in time they will be healed.

We will remember our cities;
we will honor our towns;
we will rebuild our neighborhoods.

And one day, when the crisis has passed,
we will tell again the stories,
and play once more the music of our city.

---

Copyright © 2005 Lyne Stull-Lipps. Posted with permission. Any local church or church agency may use this prayer for a one-time worship or educational purpose as long as the following copyright permission notice is printed:
Copyright © 2005 Lyne Stull-Lipps. Reprinted with permission.

Lyne Stull-Lipps, at the time of this writing was a certified candidate in the Albion District of the West Michigan Annual Conference, and was a chaplain intern at the Wesley Foundation of the University of Michigan. Lyne's family includes her husband, David, and daughter, Emma.