2023-03-25 A Prayer: Submitted Assurance
O Lord, ideas come and go; we pray for a supplicant spirit in this time of prayerful approach. See us sensitive to the corrections of the Body, of others, of You in community, while juggling some inner approval with this oblong approval of the Body, of others. We face up to as much as we can, but still can go farther in this regard. We can learn to be unashamed, and unafraid squarely to see who we are in You, in Christ Jesus. Not in the eyes of sinners, but in a tried and tested communal spirit called the Body.
O Lord, grant peace, enlarge our scope, so that we may care about the opinion of others, when it is fitting, and may rightly combine our self-approval with the approval of those we care about. See us reluctant still to face down certain judgments and opinions out there; we hide out, in timidity. Help us believe in You, gone so far in panoramic exploration as to be killed, then Resurrected as Whole Man, Whole Woman. So as to dwell in concern for the concerns of others, strangely outfitted in ways that these others nod to in agreement. So as to dwell no slave to maladjusted opinions and the insinuations of a malignant crowd, but still to Care and to Wonder and to Take Heed around social norms, insofar as those love what we love and hate what we hate, and make room for the exceptional ones, the believers.
Make us servants to all, if it be Your will. We long to move beyond our own mechanisms of self-approval. Indeed, it is strange things that earn the affection of others. It is a wakeful day, and new ecstasy to off-load the duty onto Your very self. We are scared to see some truths, until re-equipped and outfitted via a penitent move made. Which move opens up our eyes, to see a step further in penitence.
See as we reinvent scenarios, season of fasting at times, or rightly finding proper route the second or third time around, that is, to make a business of our faith, one we can bolster others with and boast of in believing circles in some strange shared language; but help us be that burning wick, putting self up for consummation, for being consumed, in exchange for putting self up for Gospel Witness: that it is no fast nor deprivation that makes us who we are in You, but rather a Divine concession, a Divine favor and gift, to be loved without anything in return. See, O God, we stomach the ill begotten fruits, a bit, in order to be that burning wick to others.
We pray all this in Your Name, Amen.