My prayers, these days, differ.
O Lord, surely Omniscient You know,
for surely You hear,
surely You bear
my weary, worrisome intercessions
about all-manner of sordid worldly transgressions –
the daily, hourly sacrifices of flesh
toss’d into the gaping, insatiable maw of humanity’s ravenous egoism,
yea, egotheism:
nativism,
racism,
sexism,
terrorism,
triumphalism,
contemptible, uncountable -isms beyond -isms!
Do You remember when I, as a child,
called on You ev’ry night,
“Now, I lay me down to sleep…”
when, then all I wanted was for You to
“…wake me in the mornin’s light”?
Surely You do.
And do You remember when, later,
I,
with my
hands clasped, knees bent, head bowed, eyes closed,
prayed in petition for all manner of my desirin’;
for
good grades,
great health,
more wealth,
love – to love another and myself; to be loved by another for myself,
mending my heart broken by loves lost, and
more than I can recall?
Surely You do.
I wonder, Lord,
did You know back then –
when
You set the cosmos astirrin’
and galaxies of stars and planets aspinnin’; when
Your Spirit brooded o’er the face of the deep, bringin’
to light and to life all bein’ –
that this world, Your world
would be a cup o’erflowin’
with all manner of disaster
and, with the arc of time circular,
leadin’ ever back to that…Your snake-infested Garden?
Surely You did.
So, Lord, what am I s’pposed to pray now
when the distance ‘tween the human-I and the divine-Thou
is day-by-day e’er-increasin’?
Surely, I’m prayin’ You know.
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Oh MY!!! What do we pray for now that there is soooooooo much hate and discontent in the world…. so much of man’s inhumanity to man??
I too remember praying “now I lay me down…” as a child and being sooooo excited about what the next day would bring and what I would learn….
Now, though I definitely still want to wake up, I also am dreading who will kill whom that day, or who 45 will tweet about, or who will shock our senses with the latest scandal.
For me, reading this prayer you’ve given me an idea of what I need to pray for…. how about “decrease” – on misbehavior, racism, hate, intolerance, killing and anything that doesn’t involve tolerance, acceptance, love and forgiveness. So even though there’s so much we can fret about I’m thankful for the ray of hope you provided… even if that wasn’t your intent.
Much love!
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Loretta, you raise an interesting point about my intent. Hmmm, indeed, what was my intent?
Sometimes, as in this case, words come and ideas form quite, it seems to me, on their own volition and power leaving me to chase after them to record them; all the while not sure of my point or direction or destination.
Regarding “Surely…”, I think, on reflection, I’m wrestling with my sense of the state of things/life in this world; so heavy-laden with terrible -isms that, at times, prayers for betterment and praying for hope seems, feels senseless…useless. This leads me to recall how simple and innocent my praying was when I was a child, and then how self-focused my praying was when petition was at the heart of my conversations with God. Now, in the light and shadow of our world, intercession for others and the conditions and circumstances of humankind dominate my prayers. And, in this, again, I wonder to what end, for what good purpose given the persistence of all ails is…
I have no answer to my question, save to name and claim it as my question, and, perhaps, beyond or deeper than that to trust, in faith, that God will guide my praying and show me a better, faithful way.
Love
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