Since today is the National Day of Prayer, I thought I’d share a recent poem from my latest poetry book, My Soul Is From a Different Place.
The poem? It’s called “What Is Prayer?”
Why do I pray to you?
You, who put each hair on my head,
who made my blue eyes
and strong spirit.
Why do I tell you
what you surely must already know.
Why confess the sins you’ve seen,
or tell you about my fears?
Do I beg to you?
Do I ask you
to do something
you weren’t planning on doing?
Is prayer a reminder
for you to fulfill
promises I perceived
from you?
Is it silent,
from my thoughts and heart,
sent out with emotion
to the only one who’ll understand?
Or should prayers be shouted?
Glory! Blessings! As loud and long
as we can to make sure that you know
what it is we’re saying.
No.
Prayer is not so you can see me more clearly,
it is how I can see my faults and weaknesses,
and still show my authentic self
to you.
Prayer is not how you know what I desire,
but how I can more freely
see the blessings
from this path you’ve led me on.
Prayer lets me step out of
our world of time and space
and into your world, our future home,
when we close our eyes and speak with you.
Prayer is our answer
to the questions we have
before we even know
what we would ask.
© Cherie Burbach, 2014, My Soul Is From a Different Place
Thank you for sharing this Thursday’s prayer time turned out to be really important for me, because along with the emphasis on town, state, country, and world that the Nat’l Day of Prayer always calls for, my best friend’s father was dying. Their family weighed heavily on my mind until I remembered that the God who made me and loves me is the same one who made and loves him. And my friend. And her family.
So sorry to hear about your friend’s father. Those are always the hardest times to remember and feel God’s love.