BACK BENCH PRAYER
Lord, here I am in this back bench again.
To be honest,
I don’t know how to pray.
To be honest,
I don’t know what to say.
To be honest,
I wish I could pray like that person
up there in the front of church,
but I can’t. In fact, right now
I want to run. I have this crank
in my soul that keeps mumbling,
“What’s the use? I keep repeating
these same old sins. I keep making
these same mistakes and resolutions
over and over again.”
Yet, here I’m am Lord – half sitting,
half kneeling – half present
with all these back bench folks in churches,
each of us repeating and praying
the same old prayer the man
in Luke chapter 18, verses 9-14
whispered,
“God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
Lord, here I am in this back bench again.
To be honest,
I don’t know how to pray.
To be honest,
I don’t know what to say.
To be honest,
I wish I could pray like that person
up there in the front of church,
but I can’t. In fact, right now
I want to run. I have this crank
in my soul that keeps mumbling,
“What’s the use? I keep repeating
these same old sins. I keep making
these same mistakes and resolutions
over and over again.”
Yet, here I’m am Lord – half sitting,
half kneeling – half present
with all these back bench folks in churches,
each of us repeating and praying
the same old prayer the man
in Luke chapter 18, verses 9-14
whispered,
“God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
© Andrew Costello,
Prayers, 2009
1 comment:
Father, Thank you. You have said something in these few short lines that has really moved me.
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