A Petition to Father

2/17/1998

“Thank you, for all that I may 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-headedness 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 peacemaking, 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 who 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 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. Amen.”
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This devotional speaks a lot to me and I thought I would share it here. I am seeking the Lord and praying that each day my own life and heart would reflect these words more and more. In some ways I feel like I have been missing for a time, like I was lost and separate from my Beloved, but He as found me and I pray never to loose sight of HIM again.

God Bless
mj