Sometimes It Just Seems to Be Too Much

A prayer by Ted Loder

Sometimes, Lord,

it just seems to be too much:

too much violence, too much fear;

too much of demands and problems;

too much of broken dreams and broken lives;

too much of war and slums and dying;

too much of greed and squishy fatness

and the sounds of people

devouring each other

and the earth;

too much of stale routines and quarrels,

unpaid bills and dead ends;

too much of words lobbed in to explode

and leaving shredded hearts and lacerated souls;

too much of turned-away backs and yellow silence,

red rage and the bitter taste of ashes in my mouth.

Sometimes the very air seems scorched

by threats and rejection and decay

until there is nothing

but to inhale pain

and exhale confusion.

Too much of darkness, Lord,

Too much of cruelty

and selfishness

and indifference. . .

Too much, Lord,

too much,

too bloody,

bruising,

brain-washing much.

Or is it too little,

too little of compassion,

too little of courage,

of daring,

of persistence,

of sacrifice;

too little of music

and laughter

and celebration?

O God,

make of me some nourishment

for these starved times,

some food for my brothers and sisters

who are hungry for gladness and hope,

that, being bread for them,

I may also be fed

and be full.

Guerrillas of Grace Prayers for the Battle  copyright 1981 Ted Loder Posted by permission of Augsburg Fortress. No further posting or transmission is allowed without the written permission of the publisher.