Micah 6:8

What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Lord, come with me, please

on my morning walk and show

me whatever it is I need to see.

Tell me the name of the butterfly

that settles on the wildflowers

at dawn to dry its large, black wings.

Take my hand, Lord, and lead me down

the path to forgotten gardens, secreted

away among the pines and guarded, barred

by the owl who watches me from above.

Let me kneel in the damp earth, there

among the fallen leaves and dragonflies,

and make my confession to the cardinals

as they sing their morning hymns.

And then, Lord, when you think

I’m ready, take me from this church

to Your church—the people.

Take me to the place where people

capture Your creation in rooftop gardens

and try to find prayerful silence in a world

drowning in a cacophony of human suffering.

Take me to the place where everyone

is shouting, but no one has a voice,

a place where people scrawl their pain

and tag their fears in paint on signs and walls.

Take me to the place, Lord, where people

have forgotten You, where Justice has become

a myth and Mercy is the gift of fools.

Lord, I have been blind.

For too long, I have turned away

from the world and buried myself

in my own needs.

I have slept through wars and famine.

I have drawn the curtain over

the window to other people’s pain.

I have turned up the radio instead of

answering that desperate knock at the door.

Lord, open my eyes.

Lord, wake me from my sleep.

Lord, push me into the world.

Lord, humble me.

Make me an instrument of Your peace.

Amen.