For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2 Cor 7:10
A prayer for the poisoned
Forgive my blindness Forgive my deafness Forgive my lies and pretence. Forgive my ignorance Forgive my coldness Forgive my scorn and disdain. Forgive my deceptions Forgive my incompetence Forgive my turning away. Forgive my ugliness Forgive my vanity Forgive my arrogance and blame. Forgive my depravity Forgive my ingratitude Forgive my weakness and guilt. Forgive my squandering Forgive my impatience Forgive my wounding and shame. Forgive my weariness Forgive my misery Forgive my fear and control. Forgive my faithlessness Forgive my doubting Forgive this poor, futile game.
In the eyes
There is something stark and open in the eyes of those men and women who have experienced rock bottom. Their humility has been born through desperation and total descent. They know that they have fallen, and they see that they are broken.
When looking towards God from this position, the task at hand seems to be that of bridging the unfathomable distance between the depths of this pit and the seat of heaven. I now feel that God is particularly close to us here, when we crack open and shatter our false selves beyond repair. Our abyss becomes filled with the chance for repentance and the hope of Truth. He is with us in our emptiness.
The intent in the eyes of those reaching up from so low continues to be one of the most beautiful things that I have ever witnessed.
"That man is perfect in faith who can come to God
in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires,
without a glow or an aspiration,
with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects,
and wandering forgetfulness
and say to Him
"Thou art my refuge."
George Macdonald
Being a walking question mark 