This is the view from my balcony in Charlotte. While it might not strike you as beautiful or peaceful, I love it. I drink my morning coffee out there most days and – having been inspired by a friend whose view is the Chicago skyline – I sit there and pray for strangers:
- The people who sold their personal things at that – now closed – pawn shop because they needed the cash,
- Those who drive through the CVS Pharmacy window without health insurance,
- The people who will soon open their business in the space where the windows are now boarded up (as well as the owners/brewers of the new Pilot Brewing next door who seem like very nice people.)
My Chicago friends moved into a high rise in Streeterville upon retirement and told me that – in the evening as lights came on – they used those lights like prayer beads. A light in the blue building would come on and they’d pray for whoever lives in that apartment. A light in an office building would pop on and they’d pray for whomever was working late at their desks, for the late night cleaning crew, for the security guards in that skyscraper.
Whether the view from your porch or your window includes homes like yours or birds or a strip shopping center or a parking lot, there is someone or something to pray for. And if you are as quiet-time challenged as I am, even five minutes works wonders. It’s a calming way to start the day.
Happy Monday.
A Church for Starving Artists 
Happy Monday back to you, too, Jan. I’ve appreciated your blog posts for some years now. My (Vermont) view out the window is a bit more rural…but remember (near) Charlotte days with fondness.
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I feel peace just imagining your Vermont view.
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Thanks Jan, for this inspiring post. When we are in Chicago, I let sirens trigger my prayers but that always seems like a crisis prayer. I love the idea of letter quiet gentle lights inspire prayers. This is beautiful.
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Awesome way to put into practice praying for others at the start of the day. My rural view from our deck is a train track where we see a wide mix of containers, circus, military, and commercial cars. However, the places these items are going need prayer and the people whose lives rely on or need these also need prayer. Thank you for a way to remember them.
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