These two poems of Joe Bayly are good ones to remember at the beginning of a new year:
A Psalm Requesting Faith
Give me courage Lord
to take risks
not the usual ones
respected
necessary
relatively safe
but those I could avoid
the go for broke ones.
I need courage
not just because
I may fall on my face
or worse
but others seeing me
a sorry spectacle
if it should happen
will say
he didn't know what he was doing
or he's foolhardy
or he's old enough to know
you lead from the side
instead of letting yourself be caught
in a wild stampede.
Give me courage Lord
to take unnecessary risks
live at tension
instead of opting out.
Give me the guts to put up
instead of shutting up.
When it comes right down to it
Lord
I choose to be Your failure
before anyone else's success.
Keep me from reneging
on my choice.
A Psalm of World and Life
Lord give me a view
of this world
and this life
the sort that comes
when you climb a mountain
a hill
or even go out
on a rooftop.
I want to see things from above
from your perspective
not from beneath.
I want to see
you at work
in history including
the evening news
nature's beauty
nature's terror
science space
the church in history
and today.
I want to see
your image
shine through music, art,
drama, books.
But most of all
let me view
my life
from above
see goals, priorities,
achievements, failures
from your perspective.
O Lord
burn eternity
into my eyeballs.
1 comment:
I especially like that first poem. Some books I've read recently urge that we take such risks -- if our life can be too easily explained apart from God, that's when we need to worry!
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