The Daily Reading for August 8, 2010

Pry Me off Dead Center

O persistent God,
deliver me from assuming that your mercy is gentle.
Pressure me that I may grow more human,
     not through the lessening of my struggles,
     but through an expansion of them
     that will undamn me
     and unbury my gifts.
Deepen my hurt
     until I learn to share it
     and myself
     openly,
     and my needs honestly.
Sharpen my fears
     until I name them
     and release the power I have locked in them
     and they in me.
Accentuate my confusion
     until I shed those grandiose expectations
     that divert me from the small, glad gifts
     of the now and the here and the me.
Expose my shame where it shivers,
     crouched behind the curtains of propriety,
     until I can laugh at last
     through my common frailties and failures,
     laughing my way toward becoming whole.
Deliver me
     from not just going through the motions
     and wasting everything I have
     which is today,
           a chance,
                 a choice,
                        my creativity,
                              your call.
O persistent God,
let how much it all matters
pry me off dead center
so if I am moved inside
      to tears
           or sighs
                   or screams
                          or smiles
                                 or dreams,
they will be real
and I will be in touch with who I am
and who you are
and who my brothers and sisters are.

A poem from:                Guerrillas of Grace
                                     Prayers for the Battle
                                          by Ted Loder