prayer

This series of brief prayers was born on Twitter in an impromptu conversation between the amazing Rachel Hackenberg and myself. When I saw the first one, it sparked the second, and to my delight she replied with the third. For a few minutes, as we each prepared ourselves for the day, we exchanged these poems 140 characters at a time.

She has very kindly given me permission to collect and publish them here. But make sure to visit RachelHackenberg.com regularly and benefit from her words and wisdom!

Rev. Hackenberg’s poems are indented to the left; mine to the right.

If a star can shine

beyond its extinction,

surely I can manage

to rise and shine

through my weariness.

Help, God.

If the tiny monarch’s

Cloak of salmon and sable

Can float it across the miles

Perhaps even I can fly.

Help me, God.

If a song can sway the air

and pierce the heart until

the trees dream of love,

maybe I too can dance.

Help me, God.

If an insubstantial thought

Can leap the miles

Flutter the heart

Open the eyes

Maybe even I can hope.

Help me, God.

And if there is hope,

then at last the moon

can sigh and melt, and

the sun can bleed with life.

God, help.

And if there is life,

Then sun and moon and tears of clouds

Can rain upon the earth

To call forth wild growth.

God, help.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

I’ve been asked (okay, by only one person) to post the lyrics to this song, so here they are. The song was written on Sunday, December 16, two days after a gunman slew his mother, six educators, and twenty first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before taking his own life. The recording comes from a prayer service held December 16th at First Church of Christ Congregational UCC in Glastonbury, CT.

Courage in the Candle
by Eric Anderson

Our voices rise up as from Ramah.
Oh God, from where will comfort come?
Rachel cries out for her children
Who will not be coming home.
We wait and hear only of horrors
And we ask how once again
This violence erupts among us
Leaving anguish, grief, and pain.

(Chorus)
Into the shadows Bear a candle
A tiny spark Against the night
Into the sorrows Of an uncertain world
Raise the promise of your light.

Though the cause of evil prosper
Yet ‘tis love alone is strong
Though innocence is placed in danger
And power exercised for wrong
God is waiting in the shadows
Where human grief and sin shall cease
A holy light shines in the darkness
And heaven’s children find their peace.

(Chorus)

I will not accept the darkness
As my predestined home of woe
I will not despair of loving
Although its losing grieves me so.
I will take courage in the candle
And hold its flame before the night
Where God is waiting in the shadows
Together, we will shine with heaven’s light.

(Chorus)

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Courage in the Candle