A PRAYER FOR THOSE ADRIFT

“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.”  (Psalm 139:9-10 NIV)

God, You are at the center of this. Or You are all about me. Or even though I cannot name how You are here at all, still You are.

I cannot rush matters now. Where would I rush to? I cannot deny that I am completely at sea. The sea and the drifting are all I look upon, day to day.

Yet somehow, by the thinnest of membranes, You keep me from sinking into the abyss. With Your barely perceptible touch, You convey me, though I have no idea where. Through all of this uncertain movement, let my heart be toward You. Let me trust . . . and wait.

Amen.

-- Stephen V. Doughty from "Adrift" in “Weavings Journal,” March/April 2001, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.

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SAVED FROM A SINKING BOAT

Quite dramatically it dawns upon you: There is a God. There's more to life than what I have been seeing. There is a God. And God makes a claim on my life.

Perhaps at the very same moment, you get a whole different view of yourself. Scales fall off. It is horrible. "I've been living for me. I've been curved in on myself all these years… All the love lost! And the betrayals -- by neglect as much as anything! The blindness! Woe is me. I'm a mess that can't be fixed. I've got to close all these thoughts up and get out of here." The boat is sinking.

But then, if you are blessed, just as soon as the horror of self-knowledge is embraced, there comes another feeling of presence. A gentle voice which speaks from the depths of the soul, even from the depths of the universe. "It's all right. Do not be afraid. I know who you are. Forgiveness is Mine to grant. I'm not here to destroy your life. I'm here to remake it." It feels like death at first, but then there is new life. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV)

The sudden apprehension of God's reality creates a sudden knowledge of self. And you perceive a horrible gap between yourself and God. But immediately into the breach God pours love and forgiveness in Christ. There is an intuition that God knows full well who you are, loves you anyway, and empowers you to change. Beneath the crisis of the meaning of life, whatever form it takes, God gives a sense that all is well and you are kept in love. God lifts you out of the sinking boat. 

– Adapted from Gerrit Scott Dawson in “Heartfelt”

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