A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering

Good morning, good God!

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Lord,
I try really hard to do the right thing

and say the right word

but despite my best efforts,
my words and deeds can often miss their mark
and, worse, end up hurting
just where I tried and hoped to heal...

Sometimes my efforts at honesty
become a hard lesson in humility
and while I'm grateful for what I've learned
I grieve the cost to those at whose expense

my newfound wisdom comes...

Sometimes, Lord, my best intentions

fall apart in my own hands
and, try as I might, it's hard to see

how and when and why something went wrong

- but it did and I need to own it…

So this morning, Lord,

I offer you my failed deeds and garbled words

and any harm they've done to those entrusted to my care.
I pray you’ll speak your healing word
upon whatever unintended hurt I've caused...

And I offer you all I've learned the hard way, Lord:

the way that's paved with others' hopes,
the path that bears the prints of my rough steps.

I ask forgiveness of any whose hearts

I've trespassed without care...

I offer you all my good intentions, Lord:

help me see them as they are:

to discern the selfish from the selfless

and to act upon whatever wisdom I might gain...

I offer you all the mistakes I've made, Lord:
the ones I didn't see coming,
the ones I should have seen coming,
and the ones I saw only when it was all too late:

I pray that you’ll forgive me

and heal the hearts of any I have hurt…

I offer you the foolish pride that tempts me

to think, and too often to believe,
that I’m always right and never wrong…

Help me know myself as you know me, Lord:
help me see what’s good and true
and to take honest stock

of what should have no place within my heart…

Tame, heal, shape and mold my heart

for loving you, Lord,

and for serving all whose paths cross mine...

Good God of Monday mornings,

teach me what you would have me say and do:

take hold of my heart this day and night