11/21/14

Pause for Prayer: SATURDAY 11/22

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This weekend we celebrate your kingship, Lord,
although you told us in so many ways
not to make of you a king...

But I think I just might need a king...

I need you to reign over my choices
because when I'm left to my own devices
I mess things up way too often...

I need you to rule over my passions:
my hungers and my desires too often override
my thinking, reasoning and conscience...

I need you to govern and hold sway
over my erratic ways, my ups and downs,
my inconsistent unpredictability...

I need you to decree again your law of love,
commanding me to give with generosity
when I'm so tempted to hold back...

Be my king, Lord:
reign with loving order over chaos in my day;
rule with gentle strength when I start to go astray;
and govern with your word of truth the way I live my life...

Be my king, Lord,
and rule with gentle grace my heart and soul
and all my thoughts and words and deeds
that I might serve you always,
loyal to your name...

Amen.


 

   
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1 comment:

  1. Jesus, the Gospels are unambiguous: You clearly and often invited us (me) to call you brother, not King. Help me accept that invitation.

    Faced with a well-meaning, strongly pious but totally human analogy about Kingship, help me not think of a brother as King since it subtly creates a distance between brothers.

    Help me appreciate how a loving brother has more power than a King to strengthen me where I'm weak, to trust a brother to help me clean up messes I make, to manage and moderate my passionate tendencies, to balance my ups and downs...my inconsistencies and human unpredictability.

    Help me recognize you as the brother who encourages and models generosity when I hold back.

    Help me accept the meaning of your gospel lessons: a King might possess coercive and overwhelming external power, but a brother shares my DNA fiber and is infinitely more powerful in shaping my thoughts and actions.

    Because of your repeated gospel invitations to call you brother, I have a hunch that you smile as a brother would at the incongruity of being called King. Give me courage to smile along with you.

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