Bring It On

 

He said to me,

"This is the table

   that is before the LORD."

 

       Ezekiel 41. 22

What are we bringing

   before God today?

Immense difficulties,

impossible problems,

overwhelming and disappointing,

       even our failures.

God says,

       Bring it on.

 Bring it to Me.

    Whatever it is.

Drag it over to the altar.

Lay it here.

God does the heavy lifting.

Nothing too little.

       Never too big.

The Holy Spirit hovers over

whatever we have to give

  and does something with it.

And then we can go forth

        differently through it.

The difficulty may not disappear,

but we are no longer alone in it.

We bring our hard stuff.

   God gives us His strength.

O LORD,

Of all the things You created,

You made an altar

   that we may worship You,

even in our shortcomings

        and really hard stuff.

Help us to drag these hurts

   and heavy burdens

   to this table before You.

Even more,

help us to leave them there.

And let You not just lift them

            but lift us.

Grant to us Your healing

   and strength

not just to deal with it differently

but to be faithful to You.

We confess that 

we have been struggling with it

            without You.

Carry us now, Almighty One.