Image: George Mendoza
Good morning, good God!
Every Sunday, Lord, my parish prays:
For a spirit of generosity in the hearts of us
who have more than we need...
I have so much more than I need, Lord!
I have too much stuff...
I have too many things...
I collect things I don't need...
I have too many clothes
(too many that fit and too many that don't fit)...
I have too much money...
Well, the money thing helps me define this, Lord:
it's not so much that I have a lot of money -
I don't -
but when I look around the world, I know
I have more than I need...
That's the hard question, Lord:
how much of anything do I really need...?
When I think about that
I realize I have more than I need...
I'm not going to offer you all my stuff, Lord -
you don't need it or want it!
But I want to offer for your mercy and healing:
my desire to have more and more...
my desire to have more than I need...
my desire for collecting things
- for the sake collecting them...
my desire to have more for more's sake...
my desire to have more than others have...
my desire to buy, to have and to own
the fastest, the newest, the sleekest - whatever!
I offer for your mercy and healing
my need to have:
full shelves, full closets, full bank accounts,
full boxes of whatever I want a lot of...
I offer for your mercy and healing
my tendency to stuff the empty places in my heart
with junk, with filler, with so much less
than those places deserve,
so much less than I deserve
and so much less than you deserve, Lord...
I offer you my complicity
in filling my heart with anything other
than the lasting treasures my heart longs for...
Help me to simplify my life this Lent, Lord...
Help me to give up, give away,
clean out, cast off, go without,
do without, strip away,
and lighten the load:
to empty my heart of anything
that does not fill it
as it deserves to be filled,
as it longs to be filled...
And make me generous, Lord, in sharing and giving to others
whatever I have for which they have
a greater need...
For a spirit of generosity in my life,
in which I have more than I need,
I pray to the Lord...
Such is my heart's offering this morning, Lord
and through this day and the night
and the week ahead...
Amen.
Lent2010
such is MY heart's offering, too...
ReplyDeleteLord, help me to know what others' need and what I have that can fulfill those needs, both in physical things and also in, sometimes more subtle and abstract, emotional things. Help me to know the good and helpful thing to do and say.
Good morning to you Concord Pastor.... Simplify!!!
ReplyDelete