A Prayer

I read this today at A Holy Experience. I consider Ann Voskamp one of my "mother mentors," though I've never met her. This poem is from "Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann." It touched me today, perhaps it will touch you, too!

The Din Undoes Us

(written in anticipation of reading 1 Samuel 2-3: [Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening])

Our lives are occupied territory…

occupied by a cacophony of voices,

and the din outdoes us.

In the daytime we have no time to listen,

beset as we are by anxiety and goals

and assignments and work,

and in the night the voices are so confusing

we can hardly sort out what could possibly be your voice

from the voice of our mothers and our fathers

our best friends and our pet projects,

because they all sound so much like you.

We are people over whom that word shema has been written.

We are listeners, but we do not listen well.

So we bid you, by the time the sun goes down today

or by the time the sun comes up tomorrow,

by night or by day,

that you will speak to us in ways that we can hear

out beyond ourselves.

It is your speech to us that carries us where we have never been,

and it is your speech to us that is our only hope.

So give us ears.

Amen