Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Prayer


I use the Mosaic Bible, which comes with various prayers and reflections for each week in the Church calendar, and yesterday I read this prayer.

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
---
The prayer stuck with me throughout the day, and I think God was leading me and preparing me. I had some challenging conversations with classmates about future decisions and opportunities. I thought about Zack and Eve in Cambodia, stepping out into new arenas and experiences. I thought about many of friends who exhibit divine grace every day as they overcome to the small challenges of life. 
This is a bold prayer. To be disturbed is really disturbing, unsettling, bothersome, not pleasant. But it pushes me to another place where I can find more of the kingdom of God. 

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