Wild Prayer

Just in from staff conference in Holland where we had our minds blown by the lovely Al and Deb Hirsch. Their message was simple: the centrality of Christ above all else, the call to never slow down or settle as we follow his wild lead and radical freedom in Him.

They blew us all away. In the days ahead, I will post some of my notes from our times together but tonight I will just post this prayer by Sir Francis Drake. I found it just now as I was sitting here on my porch in the last light of this summer day. Drake was an English naval hero and he lived 1540-1596. His prayer captures the spirit of our week together. Funny that... his capturing our week 500 years ago :-)

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.