We received a letter just today from some friends and former colleagues in SE Asia and Kristen, the Mom, heard this poem at a homeschooling conference she attended. It reminds me of some words I just heard spoken by Wess Stafford, Pres.of Compassion Int'l, as he told of how his job was to comfort the afflicted at times and afflict the comfortable at others. As often as I need a holy, godly affliction, I need to be likewise disturbed- at the Lord's loving hand- which never fails to take us further than we would go on our own.
DISTURB US
A Prayer by Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596)
Disturb us, Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
2 comments:
loved this the first time i read it... and find in reading it again, still love it : )
Thanks for sharing this--it really struck me deeply. I've been thinking thoughts like this for some time now, and I love the way this was worded!
Hope you guys are doing well! Can you believe we've had our kids home for 7 months now? Crazy! Sending hugs to your family :)
Rachel Setliffe
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