NIGHT PRAYER: Wednesday 4/2

Tariffs are in the news tonight and so I wondered, 

    what tariffs might God impose upon us?

 

I import all your blessings, Lord,

    your generous gifts and graces

your benefits and godsends,

    your kindnesses and favors

        - and all without a tariff... 

Through the harbors of my heart 

    and through my soul's imagination,

I import inspiration, Lord:

    insight, visions, dreams, ideas

        - and all without a tariff...

 

Across the borders of my life, 

    I traffic in your goods, Lord:

shipments of your wisdom's truth

    in trade for my brash folly 

        - and all without a tariff...

 

I've little to exchange with you,

    my idle hands are empty,

and yet you flood and fill me

    with presence and your peace

        - and all without a tariff...

. . .   . . .   . . .  

 

What's that, Lord?  

     I'm missing something?

. . .   . . .   . . .   

 

Oh...  Romans 13:8

    Owe no one anything

        save the debt of love

            you owe one another... 

 

Ah, there's the tariff I owe you, Lord:

    the levy that love imposes on freedom,

    the duty I pay in self-sacrifice, 

    the tithe you ask of all I've been given, 

    the tribute I owe your sovereign dominion,

    the surtax imposed to stretch my reach

        to love you and serve you always

            while never counting the cost...    

This, then, Lord, is my only debt:

    to love my neighbor as you have loved me:

        freely and fully, with mercy

           and sweet forgiveness...

           

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen.

I Have Loved You by Michael Joncas

 

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