Here’s a beautiful prayer from John van de Laar’s Sacredise website.
Love So Easy and So Hard
Can it be that easy, Jesus?
Can it be that hard?
That what You want for us is just to love
and be loved?
Is it possible that even those who have tried the hardest,
signed on the dotted line,
sat for years in classes
and strained their eyes from reading,
dressed in all the most appropriate garments,
and spoken with only the most measured words…
that these can miss You?
How can it be when those who have hardly tried at all,
who have damaged themselves and others so much,
that in the end they have no where else to turn
but to throw themselves on Your grace…
that these are the ones You search out?
How do we make sense of this, Jesus?
How do we love so scandalously, so inclusively?
How do we allow ourselves to be loved enough,
that all our hard and sharp edges
grow soft and round?
Help us to find the humility and courage,
the boldness and grace,
that in our loving and being loved,
we may somehow ignite our world with a compassion so fierce
that violence and abuse,
rejection and condemnation,
neglect and greed
become unthinkable.
Amen.
— written by John van de Laar, and posted on his excellent Sacredise website. Visit that site for other excellent lectionary-based resources. http://sacredise.com/
