Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
— Luke 15.8
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
Where can I go from your presence?
It was you who formed my inward parts
— Psalm 139
I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence…. But I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost of sinners, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience.
— 1Timothy 1.13, 16
God, search me.
Find the lost parts,
the secret sins, the hidden treasures,
the forgotten strength, the silenced hopes.
Beneath the obscuring ways of this world,
the fear and self-serving,
find the saint lost in my abandoned places.
Find all of me that I have let wander
alone in valleys of darkness
and bring them back to me.
I know you take your time.
Give me patience to match yours.
Search for my soul, my heavenly being,
already full and glorious within me,
your silver coin beyond all value
gleaming with your image
even in my darkness.
Let your sight be my light.
Reveal my true self to me.
May your knowledge bring me to life,
your seeing re-create me.
Behold me into myself.
Search me, God,
and find me,
and bring me to you.
Amen.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
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Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
unfoldinglight.net