Walter Brueggemann has a gift to bring hidden thoughts of the soul to light before God. Over the course of this fall, I wanted to share Walter Brueggemann with you every Wednesday from his book, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth. I believe his prayers, his words, are laden with wonder. The wonder of honesty. The wonder of trust. The wonder of love. The wonder of beauty.
You’re invited to join us for Wednesdays with Walter as we dive deeper in our relationships with God and with each other. [Tweet this]
Read through the poem below silently. Recite it aloud. May this become our prayer today and everyday as we learn to surrender our plans to God’s hands:
Not the God we would have chosen
We would as soon you were stable and reliable.
We would as soon you were predictable.
———and always the same toward us.
We would like to take the hammer of doctrine
———and take the nails of piety
———and nail your feet to the floor
———and have you stay in one place.
And then we find you moving,
———always surprising us
———always coming at us from new directions.
Always planting us
——————and uprooting us
——————and tearing all things down
——————and making all things new.
You are not the God we would have chosen
———had we done the choosing,
———but we are your people
———and you have chosen us in freedom.
We pray for the great gift of freedom
———that we may be free toward you
———as you are in your world.
Give us that gift of freedom
———that we may move in new places
———in obedience and in gratitude.
Thank you for Jesus
———who embodied your freedom for all of us. Amen.
Father, in the midst of our own plans and controls, may we surrender everything to your power and sovereignty, knowing full-well that you hold the entire world safely in your hands and care intimately for each of your kids. May we choose to trust even in the unknown. Amen.
When is a time you have found yourself trying to put God into a box or certain mold?
Pick up a copy of Walter Brueggemann’s Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, from Amazon, here.
