If you’re looking for a prayer to stay grounded this election and post-election season, consider the seven directions prayer.

It has similarities with how we did our Call to Worship on Sunday – facing each of the four cardinal directions, calling to mind the gifts of each.  Like the new beginnings and open possibilities of the East; the shadows and wintering rest of the North; the beauty and closure of the West; the warmth and abundance of the South.  The additional directions involve looking up and remembering the canopy of clouds, the vastness of the universe; kneeling down and touching the earth, the ground that holds us; and turning within, mindful of the inner world out of which flows our thoughts and actions.

Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” and I like thinking in terms of the kin-dom’s presence in these seven directions. 

At our house, when I face East I’m looking at woods.  When I face North I’m looking at a police station.  When I face West I’m pointed toward the cars on the road.  When I face South, I see my neighbor’s yard.  These particularities also inform prayer.  I have found that physically touching the earth with my hand in the morning can serve as a reference point throughout the day.  Yes, it is still holding me up.  Yes, I share this earth with a multitude of life.  I suppose all of this could also be done indoors, or in one’s imagination.   

Often I am not sure how to pray.  But prayers like this move me in the direction of reverence within a larger frame than the events of the day. 

Joel