Disturb Us, Lord

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"Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose" (Romans 1:28, The Message)

May it never be said of anyone of us that God quit bothering us!

Left to ourselves we will always settle for the least, not the best. Like a river unattended, we will take the path of least resistance, and suppose it had been the best route all along. We so easily set our lives on cruise control and zip along merrily, merrily -- unaware that we are in fact drifting farther and farther away from God. Disturb us, Lord!

The famous prayer by Sir Francis Drake would find good use upon our lips in these indifferent days; I offer it with an encouragement that you pray it in earnest until the Lord sets your feet on the higher way, the nobler way, the better way -- and that He never quits bothering you; never lets you run loose from His purpose for your life.

"Disturb us, Lord
When we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

"Disturb us, Lord,
when, with the abundance of things we possess,
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
and, having fallen in love with life as we know it,
We have ceased to dream of eternity;
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

"Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

"We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push us into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love."

Sir Francis Drake -1577
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