In light of the discussions of listening and calling this week, here is a prayer from Walter Brueggemann’s superb prayer collection, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth. In the words of the prayer, God’s call is a hard mix, and so are we.
We are among your called
We have heard and answered your summons.
You have addressed us in the deep
places of our lives.
In responsive obedience we testify,
as we are able, to your truth as it
concerns our common life.
We thank you for the call,
for the burden of that call,
for the risk that goes with it,
for the joy of words given us
by your growing spirit, and
for the newness that sometimes comes
from your word.
We have indeed been in the counsel of your
Summoning spirit,
And so we know some truth to speak.
But we are, as well, filled with rich
imagination of our own,
And our imagination is sometimes
matched and overmatched
by our cowardice,
by our readiness to please,
by our quest for well-being.
We are, on most days, a hard mix
of true prophet and wayward voice,
a mix of your call to justice
and our hope for shalom.
Here we are, as we are,
mixed but faithful,
compromised but committed
anxious but devoted to you.
Use us and our gifts for
Your newness that pushes beyond
all that we can say or imagine.
We are grateful for words given us;
we are more grateful for your word fleshed
among us.
-“Called Beyond Comfort Zone” by Walter Brueggemann