A Prayer

I first heard of the above titled poem spoken by Ravi Zacharias during a new year church service at Gateway Church. The message was called Raised to Run. If you want to listen to the whole video, you can watch it on YouTube through the link below:

SOURCE: gatewaychurchtv YouTube Channel
A lot of us, at some point in our lives may have gotten to a place where we think there's no way out of the muck we find ourselves. We blame ourselves for whatever failure that came our way. We think we are so horrible and deplorable that no one would even look at us. I don't know about you, but when I heard this poem, I can't help but think of that time when I was in that place; when I believed in that lie. While the whole poem didn't speak entirely of my own feelings, there were parts there that certainly resonates with me. In other parts, I can't help but think that there is someone out there in the world who is feeling the same way as the character in the poem and who thinks that there's no hope, especially for the sinful. The good news, we all are sinners and there's NO SIN BIG ENOUGH that A BIGGER GOD CANNOT OVERCOME. Didn't the Father say in John 3:16 that

"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Well, we are the world, and HE came for us, sinners and all. Just look at the Father's response at the end of the poem. My prayer is that we crush the lie that there is NO hope for us sinners, but instead believe in the characters of our Father in Heaven. He is good and is full of grace.

I googled the poem that Ravi Zacharias read in the video and below are its powerful words.

A Prayer
Michael Quoist, a French cleric

I have fallen, Lord,
Once more.
I can't go on, I'll never succeed.
I am ashamed, I don't dare look at you.
And yet I struggled, Lord, for I knew you were right near me, bending over me, watching.
But temptation blew like a hurricane,
And instead of looking at you I turned my head away,
I stepped aside
While you stood, silent and sorrowful,
Like the spurned fiancé who sees his loved one carried away by the enemy.
When the wind died down as suddenly as it had arisen,
When the lightning ceased after proudly streaking the darkness,
All of a sudden I found myself alone, ashamed, disgusted, with my sin in my hands.
This sin that I selected the way a customer makes his purchase,
This sin that I have paid for and cannot return, for the shopkeeper is no longer there,
This tasteless sin,
This odorless in,
This sin that sickens me,
That I have wanted but no more,
That I have imagined, sought, played with, fondled, for a long time;
That I Have finally embraced while turning coldly away from you,
My arms outstretched, my eyes and heart irresistibly drawn;
This sin that I have grasped and consumed with gluttony,
It's mine now, but it possesses me as the spiderweb holds captive the fly.
It is mine,
It sticks to me,
It flows in my veins,
It fills my heart.
It has slipped in everywhere, as darkness slips into the forest at dusk
And fills all the patches of light.
I can't get rid of it.
I run from it the way one tries to lose a stray dog, but it catches up with me and bounds joyfully against my legs.
Everyone must notice it.
I'm so ashamed that I feel like crawling to avoid being seen,
I'm ashamed of being seen by my friends,
I'm ashamed of being seen by you, Lord,
For you loved me, and I forgot you.
I forgot you because I was thinking of myself
And one can't think of several persons at once.
One must choose, and I chose.
And your voice,
And your look
And your love hurt me.
They weigh me down
They weigh me down more than my sin.
Lord, don't look at me like that,
For I am naked,
I am down,
Shattered,
With no strength left.
I dare make no more promises,
I can only lie bowed before you.

[The Father's Response]

Come, son, look up.
Isn't it mainly your vanity that is wounded?
If you loved me, you would grieve, but you would trust.
Do you think that there's a limit to God's love?
Do you think that for a moment I stopped loving you?
But you still rely on yourself, son. You must rely on me.
Ask my pardon
And get up quickly.
You see, it's not falling that is the worst,
But staying on the ground.

This poem, I learned, can be found in Ravi Zacharias's book Has Christianity Failed You?too. May you all be encouraged by the Father's response. When you are in a place where you don't want to be, perhaps it's time we change tactic and fully surrender and rely on God, instead. Why not try things HIS way? Why not instead of running away from him, we come to him for help. Who knows you'll find the one thing that's been elusive to you all through your years.

Praise be to God!