A Prayer for the West

By R.M. Hamilton

Lord.

Come dip your quill in the ink pot of human foibles and write your novel on the pages of time.

We have heard of your mighty power.

We have read of your deeds.

You split the sea for the children of Israel to set them free from Pharoh.

You drove the Mayflower off course with a great storm to lay the foundation of civil government in America.

You are not frightened by hurricanes.

Piles of water and loud tyrants bellowing threats are nothing to you.

But these things are not nothing to us.

And we are afraid.

We watch.

We pray.

And we wonder, how long Oh Lord, until you arise? How long until you put on strength and rescue us?

Wickedness struts about and it is no longer content with being brazen.

It now demands that we side with our enemies and call it compassion.

It orders us to tell lies to prove that we are truthful.  

It takes out our history books and scrapes them clear of all that offends the evil eye of these old, ancient gods.  

But you, Oh Lord are our God!

You are the Everlasting One!

You are the Holy One!

And you are our only hope.

So write on! Write with your eagle’s quill, dripping black with the ink of human machinations, across all the pages of time.

You are not a God who forgets his covenants. You may file them for a while and we wonder if you will remember, but you always do.

Teach us to lift our eyes. Teach us to lift our voices in prayer!

Surely no speech will bring us more freedom than the speech that we direct to you!

Why do we look for liberation to come from the right?

And why do we turn to the left for freedom?

Deliverance will not come from the right!

Deliverance will not come from the left!

Deliverance will only come from you, for in your name alone is salvation!

Lord, we no longer wish to only hear and read of your mighty deeds.

We want to see them for ourselves.

We do not ask out of impudent curiosity.

 We are not testing you.

 We are begging you.

Return Oh Lord and save us.

Split the sea that hems us in. Chase back the enemy that presses us hard.

And may all the storms that beset us only stand to drive us to where you wanted us all the way along.

Write on Oh Lord.

Write on.

Until it is finished.

Amen.

The writing belongs to R.M. Hamilton. Please feel free to share it where ever encouragement is needed. I retain publication rights. The ink and quill pictures are generously provided by Pixabay.