Prayers and Ponderings

In this episode, Conference Ministers the Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins (Heartland Conference) and the Rev. Dr. Chad Abbott (Indiana-Kentucky Conference), explore their work together as conference ministers in the United Church of Christ. 

The Rev. Jeff Nelson is the Minister for Ministerial Calls and Transitions for the United Church of Christ: Having served as a pastor in Northeast Ohio for 15 years – most recently at Grace UCC, Uniontown – the Rev. Jeff Nelson focuses on resources and support for pastors and other authorized ministers, including the denomination’s online portal for ministerial profiles. He said he is intrigued by the challenge of finding ways to support ministers who are making transitions. Jeff’s latest book, The Unintentional Interim: Ministry in Times of Transition, released in April 2025. He has written other books on spirituality, prayer, and pop culture, as well as a novel. His writing has also appeared at the Shalem Institute blog, The Englewood Review of Books, the Christian Century blog, and The High Calling, among other online places. You can learn more about him at https://jeffreyanelson.com/

An Interview about Neurodiversity with the Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund. In this interview we discuss Rev. Lund's new book: Blessed Minds: Breaking the Silence about Neurodiversity. 

Neurodiversity is only now being widely understood for the unique ways it affects how we interact in all kinds--even church. Learn how to honor and celebrate neurodiversity, creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and understood. This book is your guide to fostering a church that truly reflects the love and acceptance of Christ. .

Blessed Minds: Breaking the Silence about Neurodiversity is a profound exploration of how the church can embrace and honor neurodiversity. Affecting up to 20 percent of Americans, neurodiversity includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and several other conditions. Through personal stories, historical context, and theological insights, beloved author Sarah Griffith Lund unpacks the concepts of neurodiversity, mental health, and disability. This book challenges the stigma surrounding neurodivergent individuals and offers practical steps for creating inclusive and supportive faith communities. With themes of vulnerability, compassion, and justice, Blessed Minds is a call to recognize the divine nature of all minds and to foster a church environment where every individual is valued and celebrated.

More about Sarah:
Sarah Griffith Lund loves to partner with others to share hope and healing. She is an ordained minister and has served as pastor to churches in Brooklyn, NY, Minneapolis, MN, and New Smyrna Beach, FL. Rev. Dr. Lund served as Regional Minister in the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ and as a Vice President for Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. She holds degrees from Trinity University (BA), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv), Rutgers University (MSW), and McCormick Theological Seminary (DMin). Rev. Dr. Lund received the Dell Award for Mental Health Education at the 30th General Synod of the UCC. She currently serves as Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice on the national staff of the UCC and as senior pastor of First Congregational UCC of Indianapolis, IN. Rev. Dr. Lund is the author of several books and blogs at www.sarahgriffithlund.com.

Places of Rest, A Lenten Prayer:
Holy One,  Help me pause just enough To notice Your invitation 
To step off my harried path 
And accept Your invitation 
To the rest that truly resets. 

Let the seat You offer 
Be the reminder I need 
To trust Your promise 
To lighten every weariness 
With Your renewing pause. 

Yes, grant me grace 
To turn aside and notice  
Your outstretched mercy seat 
Already waiting for me 
To discover 
Your holy gift 
Of rest that renews my body 
And restores my soul. 

Grant me courage 
To give up my plans 
Just enough to receive  
The gift You offer 
With outstretched invitations 
Revealed at every turn. 

Let this seat of grace 
Position my body and soul 
To noticed anew your creation 
Often overlooked in my rush 
To tend my anxious worry. 

Yes, by this of 
Your invitation 
Made known in Christ 
Grant me grace to trust 
Your necessary call to rest 
And through it receive 
The joy You yearn to offer.

-DMLH, March 2025

With the release of his new book, Yes, Love, Thank You: Meditative Prayers and Pictures to Blossom Your Heart, the Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins and the Rev. Cassidy Hall sit down to talk about prayer, spiritual practices, and new entryways into our interactions with the Divine.

Often this Presence gets covered over by hurry, worry, or fear. But life doesn't have to be this way. Another way is possible. The meditative prayer/poems and photographs in this collection are offered as portals to help you discover this Presence already meeting and holding you right where you are. Such titles as "Beginning Again," "Desert Joy," "Unhinged," "Spirit Fruit," and many more invite you to encounter this Holy Presence discovered in every season of life.

They are grouped into three sections: Yes, Love, and Thank You. Each section offers reminders of Love's affirmation, desire, and call. They are an invitation to slow down and linger into an awareness of the Love that holds all of life, including your own.

Photographs are also provided as an alternative opening to this always-present Presence. Remembering what St. Francis once shared about nature being God's first Bible, each prayer is accompanied by a photograph often captured from nature. The pictures intersect with the words of the prayers but may be used in their own right as invitations into the soul's beckoning silence.

A holy blessing awaits your discovery and deepening so that your heart and life may blossom and radiate more love and beauty into the world. Yes, Love, Thank you! Click here to purchase.

Election Time - A Prayer
Holy God,

 Form us with loving resolve

 To bear Your light and hope

 Into a season fraught

 With fear and despair.

Form our thoughts

 With Your alive Word of Love

 Able to fashion new creations

 Out of every crushing chaos.

Mold our hearts 

 Into vessels of grace

 Sorely needed in every time

 But especially needed

 In this present moment.

Fashion our words 

 With a grace that celebrates

 And builds up the beloved other

 Forming space for thriving

 Of body, mind and spirit.

Strengthen our resistance

 To everything within and around

 That dares to diminish 

 Your vision of a world made new

 Where everyone joyfully thrives.

Transform the world 

 Again and again and again

 With Your Holy Christ-love,

 And break down every division,

 Giving space for new beginnings

 In answer to every death

 Daring to claim the final word.

Raise in us Your resurrection,

 Always offered as Holy gift

 Calling us forward in love

 For the good of the other

 Planting your just peace

 Throughout the whole creation.

Yes, bless us for this 

 High and Holy calling

 Revealed with Your 

 Spirit-born Christ-light

 Able to dispel every night

 Of our misguided making.

And may Your deep love form us, 

 Heart, mind, body, and soul

 Into a resolution of grace

 Able to heal the world.

-DMLH, November 2024

Summer Stillness - A Prayer by the Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins

O Love,

 Saturate me

 With Your summer stillness

 Opening deep within

 The space unnameable 

 Formed by You

 For Your mystery

 Of unfolding love.

Pause me with scents

 Scattered by flowers

 Coming into bloom

 Fed by Your sun and rain.

Fix my gaze 

 On your gentle motion

 Of morning sun rising

 And landing on everything

 In joyful abandon

 Born of Your abundance.

Let me rest in You

 Trusting Your promise

 Announced by birds

 Singing their summer song.

By this of You 

 May worry be put to rest

 And wonder be given space

 To rise in worship of You

 And all You make possible

 In Your grand unfolding

 Hinted at and revealed

 By flowers and birds

 And daily revolutions

 Of eternity’s evolution. 

Yes, baptize me anew

 With this of Your spirit

 And Your saturating

 Summer stillness…

-DMLH, July 2024

Resurrection Stretch - A Prayer, by the Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins

Blossoming God,

  Open the petals

  Of my often closed life

  With Your irresistible light

  Of goodness and grace

  Revealing resurrection

  Surprises at every turn.

Stretch every petal of me

  Too often closed to You

  And Your promises

  Of possibilities unknown

  Except by consent

  To Your motion of Love.

By this of You

  Reveal the beauty

  You plant by seed

  Into every living being

  Impossible to know

  In its buried beginning

  Yet made visible

  In a time envisioned

  By Your loving desire.

Yes, stretch me open

  Into awe and wonder

  At Your blossoming beauty

  In every living being

  And even in me.

Let this of Your Christ-love

  Pull wide the petals

  Of Your whole creation

  In response to Your light

  Of soaking, searching love

  Touching earth with eternity.

And may Your hidden beauty

  Rise again and again today

  In the midst of ordinary turns

  Made extraordinary

  In the noticing,

  The savoring,

  And the thanksgiving

  Called forth

  By these amazing moments

  You so readily reveal.

And let it cause

  Just enough

  Resurrection revelry

  To stop the madness

  And turn the world

  And me toward You.

                            Amen.

Music: Waking Us by Quiet Lake