Title:
Prayer
Scripture:
Matthew 17:20, 6:24
Poem:
Lord I come to you in two ways
One to express my own despair about our world and the impact it has on me
Secondly, on the worlds behalf
In both cases, only you can fix
I read one article
The article shows some hope, mostly despair
I read other headline
There is last minute scrambling
I read yet another headline
It ended in death
In all three examples
No hope, only despair
I’m reading other headlines, it’s about religion
Lets take God out of the public eye
I know religion is man-made,
Rules that men try to live up to but fail
All that is left is despair
Why does man think they know best
They claim to be wise
Yet when left to their own devices
All that is left is despair, no hope, no joy
Just sharp divisions among men
The only thing that seems to solve problems is money
There is not enough to go around
As your word states, you can’t serve two masters
You’ll love one and despise the other
It is “so” depressing when reading news
It impacts me so deeply, words can’t describe it
I still wonder how these words help others
I’m sure one day you’ll reveal that to me
My heart grows hard reading news by men
It makes you want to crawl into a cave and hibernate until the second coming
War here, poverty there, lack of resources everywhere
Only a few seem to have enough, and that isn’t enough for them
How can one protect his eyes from such despair
How can one protect his heart from such hopelessness
There is a small glimmer of hope
That resides in me things will get better
The world offers only temporary relief
Relief from such an unbalance
I know the world will never be at peace
When they don’t acknowledge the true peace
Liberals want it both ways, freedom from conservatism
Yet, they want it their way
When so many want it their own way
No way is the only way that happens
No progress, No peace, No satisfaction
My heart yearns to hand over ALL of this dissatisfaction to you
Prayer is a gift from you
I know from first hand experience it works
In all cases, big and small
We have to hand over all
Let you resolve in your own time
We need patience and forgiveness
The last few weeks, a lot has happened
In the next weeks, a lot will happen
If I don’t regularly have a conversation with you
The hopelessness I feel will return
I pray for you to remain active in our world and mine
When this happens, all other things are just details
Things seem to just work themselves out
I’m not quite sure how, it just does
I pray for those who don’t understand how this works
I pray for those who don’t think to pray
I pray for those who haven’t experienced the joy prayer brings
I pray for those who don’t acknowledge you
Men want it now and their way
It’s not how it works
I know that yet my heart wants to be selfish
Prayer is a great mystery, Prayer works, give it time
I end how I began, I pray for two things
I pray for the ability to hand despair over to you
Our world realizes it doesn’t know best
And will wake up and realize if you don’t learn from the past
You are doomed to repeat it.
We are headed down that path
A mustard seed of hope will go along ways
Our world could use a jar of that today and beyond.
Amen!
Story behind the poem:
This story hit home one day after reading a story about technology. I work in IT and the next operating system came out, it was somewhat hopeful, yet there was divisions who want things to remain the same and others who criticize the change. Keeping up with change is challenging sometimes.
Secondly, the “fiscal” cliff talks going on in our world can only cause hopelessness and despair. What reputation a once great nation is gone, for good. The last story I read was a young lady was raped and eventually died. All three stories seem to drive home the point something greater than us needs to handle this, although if you talk to some non-believers (mostly atheists), all they do is talk science, prove this and prove that. I’d challenge them to try prayer on for size, it’ll work, things seem to resolve themselves when we honestly hand them over to God. I’ve experience this first hand, no one can convince me otherwise. Although, on this side of heaven, I’m impacted by the sheer negative driven world we live in and lose hope sometimes.
I have to remember to protect my eyes and more importantly my heart. If left unattended, the hopelessness will ruin any sense of normalcy and “the glass half full” mentality will effect everything we do. I wonder sometimes the impact these stories have on others. I hope they provide some “hope” and feeling they have a God that loves them and is willing to come along side them in their everyday, ho-hum lives. Back to regular scheduled programming!
Pondering Thought 