A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 1/12

Lord,
no one knows my story better than you do -
- no one, Lord -
and that includes me...

I filter my own story
through my pride and fear,
through my bias and prejudice,
and through the best - and worst -
of who I am as a human being...

But you, Lord,
you know my whole story,
my unfiltered, unvarnished story
- minus the fraud and fiction,
the pretense and posturing
I sometimes try to pass off as the truth...

You know why and how
I've become who I am
and you know all the reasons
I've not yet grown up
to become the person you created me to be -
and still you love me!

You know all my secret motives,
the good ones and the selfish ones:
you know my desires, my passions,
my needs, my wants
and everything else that shapes
the story of my life -
and still - you love me!

You know every hurt I've known
and every hurt I've ever caused
and you know better than I
what all the hurt has done to me
and to others -
and still you love me...

You know all the blessings I've been given
and you know better than I
how I've used and abused them,
how I've accepted and rejected them,
succeeding and failing in response to your grace,
to your mercy, help and kindness -
and yet, you love me...

You know the whole of it, Lord,
the good and the bad alike
and yet you love me
and you love my story
- not on account of what I've made of it -
but because my story,
in its telling and in how I live it out,
my story is the history
of all that you and I have shared...

Help me to love my story, Lord,
my whole story,
for it tells the tale of your great love for me
and of my every effort
to let your story blend with mine...

Help me tell my story, Lord,
without spinning it,
without hiding some parts
and exaggerating others:
help me love my whole story,
the saga of your grace and wisdom
healing and enlightening
all my faults and foolishness...

You love my whole story, Lord:
the part that's past
and what's still in the making,
the chapters we've yet to write...

Help my story blend with yours, Lord,
until we share but one story:
the story of your love for me
become the story of my love for you...

Amen.