Here’s a prayer I wrote many years back for my book Are You Listening? It’s a prayer for when life gets on top of us; for when times become so demanding that we start to question their ability to get through. Such moments can come unexpectedly for us all, but perhaps are experiencing them many more than ever today as we continue to live in a world overshadowed by coronavirus, with the resulting threat and uncertainty that hangs over the future of every one of us.
Lord, I can’t carry on much longer!
Introduction
For us all there are times when life gets on top of us – the pressures and demands too much to bear. And for most of us such moments are nearer than we might imagine, for who can say what tomorrow might bring? We may feel everything is under control, life running along smoothly, but it only takes one setback, one disappointment, to change our whole perspective, sending us spiralling into a vortex of chaos and confusion. Yet at the heart of our faith is the conviction that God is always there to support us, able to give us strength whatever we may face. And when we finally emerge from the darkness, it can be then to see the whole of life in a new light.
Read
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 2 Corinthians 4:8-10
Pray
Lord, I can’t carry on much longer!
Do you hear me?
I’m fraying at the edges,
coming apart at the seams,
and it’s only a matter of time
before I fall to pieces completely.
What’s happened, Lord?
I thought I was in control,
master of my own destiny,
one of the few survivors
in this rough old world of ours.
All right, I had my problems, I admit it –
the nagging worries,
the hidden fears,
the pent-up emotions –
but we all have those, don’t we – all of us?
I’d learned to live with those over the years,
even to welcome them in a funny way,
for I felt knowing my weaknesses
somehow gave me control.
But not any longer.
Suddenly the world’s been turned upside down:
everything I’d put my trust in –
so solid and certain – all at once so insecure.
And now I’m on the edge of a precipice,
hanging on by my fingertips,
a deep, dark cavern opening up beneath me.
I’m slipping, Lord!
I’m falling!
Are you listening?
Help!
My child,
you can carry on, believe me.
You may not think so,
but you have the resources to keep going,
or do you really think
that I’d have brought you this far
simply to abandon you now?
Of course not!
I’m with you always,
in the good and the bad,
the pleasure and the pain,
the joy and the sorrow.
Whether you see me or whether you don’t,
I’m there beside you,
watching over you with a love
that will never let you go.
But I can’t do it all, tempting though it is,
for that would be no help
to either of us in the long run.
You may not welcome the hard times,
but they’re as necessary as any,
for there can be no light without darkness,
no laughter without tears,
no beauty without ugliness,
no life without death.
I’m afraid that’s the way it has to be.
But when you finally reach the end of the tunnel,
as you surely will,
it will be to find your faith deeper,
and yourself stronger,
than you’ve ever dared to dream.