August 2006

            Recently I came across a book of prayers by Ted Loder, a Methodist minister.  The prayers are quite powerful in their speaking to our day to day lives and what we both seek and struggle with.  The following one certainly spoke to me and perhaps it will to you as well.

Thank you for all I forget are gifts,

      not rights.

Forgive me for all the grievances

      I remember too well.

Save me from the self-pity,

      the self-seeking,

                  the fat-heartedness

                  which is true poverty.

Guide me, if I’m willing

      (drive me if I’m not)

                  into the hard ways of sacrifice

                              which are just and loving.

Make me wide-eyed for beauty,

      and for my neighbor’s need

                  and goodness;

wide-willed for peace-making,

      and for the confronting power

                  with the call to compassion;

wide-hearted for love

      and for the unloved,

                  who are the hardest to touch

                              and need it the most.

Dull the envy in me which criticizes

      and complains life into a thousand ugly bits.

Keep me honest and tender enough to heal,

      tough enough to be healed of my hypocrisies.

Match my appetite for privilege

      with the stomach for commitment.

Teach me the great cost of paying attention

      that, naked to the dazzle of your back as you pass,

                  I may know I am always on holy ground.

Breathe into me the restlessness and courage

      to make something new,

                  something saving,

                              and something true

that I may understand what it is to rejoice.

            May we all be wide-eyed, wide-willed, wide-hearted and restless and courageous enough to follow Christ’s new and saving and true way, so that at last we truly can rejoice!