Monday Morning Offering: 3/23

Coffee in the Morning by George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

I want to grow closer to you this Lent, Lord 
- but then I remember: 

    you're always beside me, always before me, 

    always behind me, above and below me! 

How much closer might I come
    to One who's always close to me?

 

And yet, I have ways, Lord - don’t I -

ways of distancing myself 

    from you who made and live within me,    

    dwelling in my mind and heart and soul…

 

In the blink of an eye I can pretend,

- for a moment or for days or weeks on end -

that I don't see you or that somehow 

I’ve slipped beyond your gaze…

 

Like a child blocking his ears,

with small hands pressed hard against his dead,

    - I stop listening for you - 

and I miss what your Spirit whispers:
    my inattentive heart muffles and stifles

    the voice of your word alive within me…

When my soul chills in selfishness,
my fingers grow numb
and I lose the sense, the warmth, 

the touch of your presence pulsing 

in the wonders of the world around me,
in the people whose fingerprints are
warm upon my life…

 

I know so many ways 

    to take my leave of you,
    to keep my distance,
    to walk away from you

    - the only One
        who never leaves my side…

 

I want to grow closer to you this Lent, Lord 
- but then I remember: 

    you're always beside me, always before me, 

    always behind me, above and below me! 

How much closer might I come
    to One who's always close to me?

So, I offer you this morning my desire 

to open wide my eyes, to see you, Lord:

    in all who cross my path

        and in all the circumstances of this day;

    to see the way you guide my steps

        and watch with care the path I walk;

    to see how you keep me alway 

        as the apple of your eye…

 

I offer you this morning my desire

to open up my mind and soul, to hear, O Lord,
every word you speak from your heart to my own
    in the scriptures,
    in my thoughts and in my prayer,
    in the words of others
and especially in the silence 

    - and in every breath I take...

 

Draw me close to you, Lord, especially 

    when I turn away and fail to see you,
    when I avoid the quiet where I might hear you,
    when I turn from the grace

        with which you touch me…

 

Help me to find what I trust

is already the truth of my life:
    that you are always beside me, always before me, 

    always behind me, above and below me! 

Draw me ever closer to your side, Lord
    - and never let me be parted from you…

Amen.

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