A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: March 13

Good morning, good God!

This Monday morning, Lord,
I offer you the prayer that groans in my gut,
searching for words, longing to be spoken,
slow to come to speech...

I offer you the prayer that haunts my heart,
hunting a place to call home, searching out a corner
where longings and desires long unfulfilled
seek the respite of a soul's restful harbor
where hope might be refreshed...

I offer you the prayer that's on the tip of my tongue
but for which all my words seem lacking,
unworthy, not up to the burden of
bearing a soul's cry from its secret depths
to the heights of your glory...

I offer you the prayers I deem selfish or foolish;
the prayers I think too small to matter
or too large to be answered...

I offer you the prayers I've neglected,
the ones I find difficult to speak
even when the words are at hand
and I know I need to use them...

I offer you the prayers
your Spirit longs to speak within me:
thoughts, intuitions, words
all planted long ago,
waiting to bud and bloom, to blurt from my heart,
breaking the silence that doubt and fear impose...

I offer you the prayers that lie within me,
living to be whispered, spoken, cried
and shouted from my heart to yours...

Teach me, Lord,
to know that trusting you've heard my prayer
is a greater grace, by far,
than your answering any of my prayers
as I would have you answer...

Teach my heart
to speak to your heart, Lord
and teach my heart
to hear what your heart speaks to mine...

Teach me to trust
that when I have no words to pray
it's still a prayer to say,
"Lord, I have no words to pray..."

Teach me to trust that
simply to sit in your presence
in silence,
without a word to say,
is to sit in your presence in prayer...

Lord, teach me to pray
when I find and have the words to say
- and especially when I don't...

Amen.