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Pry Me Off Dead Center: Loder

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This was a great way to start the day, another great poem from Guerrillas Of Grace: Prayers For The Battle

Pry Me Off Dead Center

O persistent God,
deliver me from assuming 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 wherever it shivers,
crouched behind the curtains of propriety,
until I can laugh at last
through my common frailties and failures,
laugh my way toward becoming whole.

Deliver me
from 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 sisters and brothers are.

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Make Me Simple: Loder

This was a refreshing meditation today. I love Ted Loders reflections in Guerillas of Grace...this is another great one.  ~Monty

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Make Me Simple

O Ingenious God,
I rejoice in your creation
and pray that your Spirit touch me so deeply,
that I will find a sense of self
…..which makes me glad to be who I am
……….and yet restless
……………at being anything less
………………..than I can become.
Make me simple enough
…..not to be confused by disappointments,
clear enough
…..not to mistake busyness for freedom,
honest enough
…..not to expect truth to be painless,
brave enough
…..not to sing all my songs in private,
compassionate enough
…..to get in trouble,
humble enough
…..to admit trouble and seek help,
joyful enough
…..to celebrate all of it,
……….myself and others and you
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Bless What Eludes My Grasp: Loder

Powerful prayers Have you ever been praying for someone…some things…and you just knew that there was something else you were supposed to pray about? There was someone on your list of people that was eluding your mind in the moment and it gnawed at you so you prayed the generic prayer to the sovereign God of forgettful people reminding Him that He knew all and you remember scant little…We have all been there. In this prayer we are reminded that there are things that elude our grasp, so we trust in the God that is larger than our grasp.  MC

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Lord, so many things skitter through my mind,

and I give chase to gather them

    and hold them up in a bunch to you,

but they go this way and that

    while I go that way and this…

So, gather me up instead

and bless what eludes my grasp but not yours:

    trees and bees, fireflies and butterflies,

    roses and barbecues, and people…

Lord, bless the people…bless the people:

    birthday people,

        giving birth people,

            being born people;

    conformed people,

        dying people,

            dead people;

    hostaged people,

        banged up people,

            held down people;

    leader people,

        lonely people,

            limping people;

    hungry people,

        surfeited people,

            indifferent people;

    first world people,

        second world people,

            third world people;

    one world people,

        your people,

            all people.

Bless them, Lord.

Bless what eludes my grasp but not yours.

~Ted Loder (Guerillas of Grace)