CHAPTER ELEVEN: GUMBALLS IN RUSSIA

Father, whose imagination danced our world into being, thank you for the gifts you share with us. Thank you for your rich generosity toward us. Thank you for giving us your very best.

…yet my hands hold tightly
     clenched and white-knuckled
     taking and guarding
     gathering for personal gain
     using for higher position
     easily discarding
     with my first thought often being me
     and my last inclination dividing
     feeling some strange entitlement to everything I’ve been given.

     keeping faith
     storing resources
     guarding time
     protecting love

Yet you are the Maker of us and if anyone deserves to hold on to what you have formed, it is You. But you don’t. Your very nature is filled with gift.

     the finest wine
     the richest bread
     the most extravagant love

Your character is far from our unchecked consumption and your
glory distant from our obsession with what isn’t ours.
And so we ask your forgiveness for You
“live in a high and holy place but also with the contrite and lowly in spirit.”

You see miracle in the simple
You find the spectacular in scarcity
You see wonder in a child’s creativity
“From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise”
In your economy, the least are the greatest.

And so we ask for You to shape our imaginations
Give us humility to receive and to see Jesus in those around us
To stop, to see, to accept
To be generous givers and wide-eyed receivers
To accept life as a gift and not entitlement
And to become like children once again

Amen.

Mike Janzen is a highly gifted musician. Since graduating in 1997 with a Masters of Composition degree from the University of Toronto, he has been involved in a diverse collection of projects as a free-lance composer. Recent works include composing and arranging for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, composing the original score for the Prodigal Trilogy (Jason Hildebrand) and writing the music for a full length film soon to be released (string orchestra recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio). Mike has written numerous chamber pieces, two full-length musicals and continues to write and arrange for studio sessions in Toronto. He is a jazz piano player with the Mike Janzen Trio and has performed across Canada with Steve Bell, the Penny Merchants, Jacob Moon, and others. He is currently living in Toronto where he is also the Evening Music Director at Little Trinity Anglican Church.

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