Keeping the Hours

The Twitter account for the Episcopal Church recently offered the following:

“Watch over those who work while others sleeps, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends on each other’s toil.”

As one who lives on the other side of the International Dateline from most of my family, friends, and colleagues, I found this prayer very comforting and inclusive.  Usually, I get tad lonely when Renovare, Weavings, or other spiritual formation accounts send out prayers of the daily office because it reminds me of how many Twitter accounts cater to the “other hemisphere.”  As if the silence my social networking sites offer in my afternoon and evening isn’t isolating enough, I have prayers of the day coming through at the wrong hours for me.

I’m not whining, nor am I asking for special favors of scheduled tweets to help me mark the divine hours…I do very well with my prayer books, thank you.

What I am offering is a reflection on a broader vision of what it means to pray for those who work while others sleep and remembering that our common life depends on each other’s toil.

I have prayed similar prayers on board ship at evening prayer “watch with those who work or watch or weep this night.”  It is an important reminder to ship’s company that while some of us “rack out,” others are steering the course, keeping the ship from running aground or colliding with another vessel or being attacked.  So much is going on while we sleep.

This prayer makes so much sense for military folks, or when we remember that while we slumber in our homes there are members of the police department patrolling our cities, or standing ready to respond from the stations.  There are nurses checking up on sleeping patients in hospitals, EMTs responding to emergencies.  Clerks at 24 hour convenience stores and gas stations.  While we sleep (if we have a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job) there is so much going on that keeps our communities going.  There are laborers in factories making our stuff. 

Our common life, people keep it going at all hours.

And while you sleep in the “other hemisphere” there are soldiers and Sailors and Marines and airmen in my hemisphere who keep that watch in a different way.  (Along with all of the folks in manufacturing plants in small corners of the world toiling over the tiny little gizmos that make our tech toys that help us stay connected.) Likewise, while all of us in “this hemisphere” sleep, you take care of us.

And now I am reminded of a lyric by U2: “We get to carry each other.”  While some of us sleep, others pray the morning office, and some of us are praying compline while others are praying the dawn office…and while some of us pray to the Triune God, others are contemplating the teachings of Buddha, and others are just trying to live in a way that proves “kindness is magic” (thank you Derek).

Regardless of which time zone or hemisphere, regardless of spirituality, we depend on one another for a decent common life.  So thank you @iamepiscopalian for honoring me with your prayer, for prompting me reflect on how we get to carry each other.  May we live in such a way that we are the answer to our prayers.