Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 7/19

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Here's a very fine prayer from the work of Ted Loder...

 

Gather Me To Be With You

 

O God, 

    gather me now to be with you    

        as you are with me:     

    soothe my tiredness;
    quiet my fretfulness;
    curb my aimlessness;
    receive my compulsiveness;
    let me rest easy for a moment.

 

O Lord, 

    release me from the fears and guilt 

        which grip me so tightly,
    from the expectations and opinions 

        which I so tightly grip,
    that I may be open to receiving,
        to learning something refreshingly different.

O God, 

    gather me to be with you 

        as you are with me.
Forgive me 

    for claiming so much for myself
        that I leave no room for gratitude;
    for confusing exercises in self-importance
        with acceptance of self-worth;
    for complaining so much of my burdens 

        that I become a burden;
    for competing against others so insidiously
        that I stifle celebrating them 

            and receiving your blessing through their gifts.

 

O God, 

    gather me to be with you 

        as you are with me.
Keep me in touch with myself,
    with my needs,
    my anxieties,
    my angers,
    my pains,
    my corruptions,
that I may claim them as my own
    rather than blame them on someone else.

O Lord, 

    deepen my wounds into wisdom,
    shape my weakness into compassion;
    gentle my envy into enjoyment,
    my fear into trust,
    my guilt into honesty,
    my accusing finger into tickling ones.

 

O God, 

    gather me to be with you 

        as you are with me.

- Ted Loder in Guerrillas of Grace

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