God of open hands, we come to you this morning carrying what we have been given — gifts we sometimes clutch too tightly, lives we sometimes live too carefully. 

We gather not because we have it all figured out, but because somewhere beneath the noise of self-protection, we hear your invitation. 

Meet us here. 

Loosen what fear has closed in us. 

And let this hour be one in which we are, even briefly, free. Amen.

                                                     ~Forest Street Union Church