If you have ever been broken, hurt, or in despair, this beautiful prayer may reconnect you with God.
One of my favorite books of prayers is Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community. The prayers and meditations are based on ancient Christian traditions, and they reflect powerfully and beautifully the ebb and flow of life and all its challenges. It includes two sets of daily readings as well as many wonderful prayers for special occasions or times of special need.
If you have ever been broken, hurt, or in despair—perhaps you made a terrible mistake or perhaps circumstances occurred that were completely out of your control—this prayer may offer solace. Clearly the writer of this prayer was calling out to God from a dark place, yet it reflects faith and hope in forgiveness and renewal.
A Prayer In Brokenness
O God,
I cannot undo the past,
or make it never have happened!
—neither can You. There are some things
that are not possible even for You
—but not many!
I ask You,
humbly,
and from the bottom of my heart:
Please, God,
would You write straight
with my crooked lines?
Out of the serious mistakes of my life
will You make something beautiful for You?
Teach me to live at peace with You,
to make peace with others
and even with myself.
Give me fresh vision. Let me
experience Your love so deeply
that I am free to
face the future with a steady eye,
forgiven,
and strong in hope.
Do you find that times of brokenness and despair bring you closer to God, or are these times for you when God seems conspicuously absent? There’s no right or wrong answer to that question, and it may vary at different moments in your life. Even the most devout Christians speak of times in their life when God seems far away.
What’s important, I believe, is to keep talking, keep believing, and keep asking for what we all really need the most: love and forgiveness.
Add this beautiful book to your collection by clicking the icon below. I’ve reviewed it in more detail HERE.
It is easy after reaching a certain age to complain about the difficulties we encounter but that “seasoning” is one of the advantages of getting older. We learn that even some of our worst mistakes, our misguided or misunderstood actions, can have good outcomes. With luck, we become less afraid to tackle the unknown because of that understanding. Now, if somehow I could combine the wisdom gained from those crooked lines with the energy with which I committed them, whoa…look out world!
Oh, how often I have wished for just that combination, Esther! I’m sure there’s a reason we don’t often get them both at the same time. We might flame out too fast like a shooting star! But oh, what a ride!
“Would you write straight with my crooked lines…”
What a wonderful way of looking at it! I recently discovered that some very crooked lines I wrote a long time ago have apparently been made somewhat straighter. How reaffirming that has been.
Esther, that was the line that jumped out at me too. I think those of us “seasoned” humans who have been around the block a time or two have written (or lived) a few crooked lines in our day. The notion that they can be written straight God’s grace is good news indeed.