THE PREACHER'S PRAYER

The Preacher's Prayer
*


Oh that I could sing a song
        That would lift your spirit higher.
Oh that I could strike a spark
        That would set your soul on fire.

Oh that when I leave this world
        After my final minute
May you realize life is better
        Because (for a while) I was in it.

For if I should have a haunting fear
        Or a concept that I dread,
It is that  those who crossed my path
        Was given stone for bread.

That those who look up to the pulpit
        And prayed to God a special wish,
Did they get from me a serpent
        For what they needed then was fish

That those who came to church
        After a night at the "Orpheum"
When they sought from me an egg
        Did I give them a scorpion?

For the image that Jesus used
        As He taught men how to pray
Could easily be confused
        In the hustle of the day.

For stones have looked like bread
        And serpents like fish without skin
And a curled up scorpion
        Looks like an egg, but then,

When we get past the appearance
        And look beneath the shell,
What looked like a promised heaven
        Resembled more like hell

So when I preach a sermon
        Or share an idle thought
I wonder what folk have learned.
        What lesson I have taught?

O Lord, set a watch over me
        Over my mind and lip
That I may not cause another
        To wreck his fragile ship.

May my life become a blessing
        To those who know me well.
Those who know me as I am
        And not just my outer shell.

Make my heart be true to You,
        All that I have and am
Lest just one of your little ones
        Because of me be damned.

Let me find in You my hope and Joy
        The focus of my idle thought.
That I might be the teacher of other
        All that I have been taught.

Then my life will be to You
        Of some special worth,
And this world will be better
        Because of my every birth.

First, the one my mother gave me
        That started me in life
Then the new one that You gave
        That ended internal strife

And the very end of my life
        Will be just the turning of a page
As I join the wedding  party
        With the one (for I am engaged

To The Kings only dear Son)
        And when this thought I remember
It helps me through each problem
        In the bleakest of December.

ghvs 6/2/96