In some of my early gift booklets I explored the medium of poetry as a means of prayer; a way of approaching God in a way that captures the imagination and speaks as prose sometimes cannot quite do. The poems from those booklets, together with many others I’d written subsequently, were later collected in my book Poems to Help You Pray. Here’s one of them: a prayer of confession, acknowledging how often, and how easily, we fail to turn words into action, faith into practice.
Acknowledging our failure to translate
faith into action
I tell you the truth, whenever you offered service to the least of individuals, you offered it also to me. Matthew 25:40
I’m not an angel, nowhere near,
I often go astray,
but though my faults are all too clear,
I try, Lord, to obey.
Avoid what’s evil, strive for good,
that’s been my daily aim –
to live the sort of life I should
in keeping with your name.
But now I see that this alone
can never fully do;
instead it’s how much love I’ve shown
that matters most to you –
if, when I saw a friend in need,
a person in despair,
I paid their plight sufficient heed,
enough to show I care.
My times of worship, hymns and prayers
each have their part to play,
but only if my life declares
the truth of what I say;
if what I am and what I do
stays faithful to your call,
in showing love not just to you
but equally to all.