FreerangeFriday: Kitchen Still Life Prayers

by Lilly Lewin

In the world before COVID-19, I led workshops on experiential worship and creative ways to pray. Like Jesus, I like using things I find along the way to remind me to pray for different things and different people. I also follow in the way of the Celtic Christians who prayed along with their daily tasks and routines. They had prayers for making up the bed and praying for those who slept there, prayers for making the fire before breakfast and prayers as they left the home and walked to the fields or to the barn for work. When I get up in the morning, one of the first things I do is make coffee! I use a French press so it’s a bit of a process. I use a water kettle for boiling the water which gives me time to pray for friends and family members while I wait for water to boil and the coffee to brew. I use post it notes above my coffee station as prompts and reminders. So my morning coffee routine is now a prayer practice and my coffee station, a prayer station.

Since we’ve been under the STAY at HOME order in Nashville, I’ve been inspired by other things in my kitchen too. I started noticing every day still life groupings that have inspired me to pray and I’ve posted them on my instagram feed @lillylewin. I call the series “KITCHEN STILL LIFE PRAYERS.”
I don’t find them everyday, but when the Holy Spirit sparks something, I pause and take notice, and take a photo.
Here’s a week’s worth that you can use to pray with in the coming days, and here’s my invitation to you to take notice of the everyday things around you, even dirty dishes, and allow them to inspire you to pray. Ask the Holy Spirit for inspiration!

I’d love to hear about what you notice and what God uses to inspire you to pray with along your way!

Today’s Kitchen Still Life
Seems like an invitation
A reminder
Am I awake?
Am I paying attention?
Am I willing to wake up and take notice if what is really happening?
This pandemic is revealing so many things about our world
And about each of us.
Am I willing to awaken?
I need to drink in the hard things… the pain, the suffering, the conflict. The things I have done to contribute to the injustices in the world.
The Kitchen Still Life today is
Reminding me to wake up and smell the coffee
Wake up to the broken systems and injustices in my neighborhood, in my city, in my state, in this country.
And be willing to take action! And to continue to pray for eyes to see and ears to hear as Jesus did and a heart that breaks for the things that break God’s heart. AMEN

Today’s Kitchen Still Life reminds me to pray for those who are picking our food and growing it too! All the agricultural workers we take for granted each day and who usually are not paid well for their labor or honored for their time. And they are usually immigrants and migrant workers! #grateful for their work. Praying for those who pack the products and put them on our the shelves too.

Today’s Kitchen Still Life is reminding me to pray for everyone who is cleaning up after us! Trash Collectors, custodians, cleaners in grocery stores & Hospitals etc! So Grateful!
Also, it reminds me to pray for all the moms and dads, parents & roommates who are doing a lot more clean up & time in the kitchen because we are staying in! Praying for peace & helpful hands and attitudes and finding joy in the mundane of everyday tasks!
Finally, I am so thankful for running water! And soap to wash hands & dishes when so many places don’t have the basics!
And so thankful for a dishwasher! We spent many years without one, so I’m grateful every day!
Finding beauty in the messes of life.

Today’s Kitchen Still Life
Reminds me to pray for all those doctors, scientists, and researchers trying to understand this wicked disease! All those working on vaccines and treatments, all those creative people working on test development of all kinds!
We need the wisdom & inspiration of the Holy Spirit! and the will to work together from all over the globe and from all scopes of life! So grateful that scientists are not afraid to work together! So grateful for the technology that allows this from across the world! Praying for miracles in prevention and cures! Join me!

Today’s Kitchen Still Life reminds me to Pray for @chefjoseandres and his team of amazing cooks, chefs and volunteers of  World Central Kitchen on the front lines of feeding so many in the middle of #covid19 and during other disasters around the globe! If you don’t know of Chef Andres or World Central Kitchen, take time to find out. @chefjoseandres “recipes for the people,” cooking videos with his daughters will bring you joy on their own. His work and the work of @wckitchen will inspire you and encourage you too! Make a donation if you can!
Praying for all those who are helping with food insecurity in neighborhoods around the globe. Helping to provide food for those who are in need. Grateful for generous people.
Praying for our government to realize the real need for food security in the USA even before #covid19 and that we can address it!
Thankful for the Nashville Food Project for all they do each week! And practicing gratitude for whats in my pan and pantry today!

Today’s Kitchen Still Life ... Reminds me to pray for all of us who are feeling used up, spent, done or plain forgotten.

For all the missed opportunities that have happened because of #covid19
Proms, graduation, classes, rights of passage.
Weddings, trips, funerals and proper mourning, coffee dates, work, conferences, missed kisses and hugs.
For friends, family and people everywhere feeling used up, spent, or just done.
May we remind each other of our true value… we are loved without performance!
We are adored just as we are!
We are held by the One who won’t let go!
God is with us in the Sweetness and in the very Sour. Amen!
Love from Nashville!

What does this STILL LIFE inspire you to pray about today?

©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com