GIVE IT TIME

This is all the inner journey
in and into You
is asking of me:
Give it time.

Which translates:
Give it my here and my now
Give it my full-bodied and focused attention
Give it my willingness and my willfulness
Give it my humility and my humanity
Give it my energy and my honesty
Give it my best and my worst.

Suddenly,
it sounds like a lot,
like way too much.
But, ironically, I know
it’s not.

In fact
it’s nothing,
a pittance compared to what You give me
if and when
I do it.

SOUL POND

Like a small smooth stone
I descend
Into the cool quiet pool
Some call prayer.
Noiselessly I merge
With an ancient world.
Though ever new to me
It has been here all along;
The old in the new
The inner in the outer.
Rippling the surface
For only an instant,
I sink into its depths.
Here I find
My self,
The self that is nowhere else
To be found.
In fact, here I learn
Self is too small a word.
And here I discover that you, God, lead me.
Beside stilling waters
You restore my hot and restive soul,
Recreating in me a pure heart,
A quieted mind,
And a newborn sense
Of the who
that is me.

MY UNDOING

As you know all too well, God,
many things have the power to undo me;

Maybe it’s something bad that happens
Maybe its an offensive remark sent in my direction (or so my ego thinks!)
Maybe it’s my own emotions getting the better of me

And that's on a good day

Sometimes life is seeking my demise—
or so it seems

But I want you to be the one who undoes me, God.
You are the one whom I can trust unreservedly
With you I feel wholly safe

You undo me lovingly
with my well-being
in your mind
and in your heart

In fact,
what feels like you undoing me is really the opposite…
it is you doing me
It is you building me up not tearing me down
It is you putting me together not taking me apart
It is you bringing me to life...
and love

You give me your stalwart strength
You give me your ever-expanding perspective
You even give me your serenity

It is you re-creating your very self in me…through me…out of me.

Be my undoing, God.
Please.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10 NRSV