Acts of Courage

"Not my will - but yours!"

What have we become, dear Spirit?
What would you have us become, now?

We have come to this time,
beyond our first steps, proudly taken.
Would you have us dance - to celebrate joy?
Or crawl - to relearn humility?

We embark on homecoming,
not knowing what the household will look like.
So much has already shaped our relationships!
Documents, Affirmations, Rites and Rituals,
Arguments, Promises made - sometimes kept.

We confess we have often failed
to live into the promises.
We regret the times we did not risk the Way
we knew to be true.

How do we take the next steps?
Our diversity is marked and our unity is often regulated.
How do we be the Holy People you call us to be?

Give us courage to let go of past hurts or hopes
and dream and vision with you
of a realm beyond our knowing.
Grant us the glimpses
that inspire and sustain
in the midst of banquets and famines.

Come, Holy Friend,
expand our hearts to find
new spaces for grace,
new acts of restoration,
new traditions of kinship,
new faith,
new hope,
new love.
Amen.

(C) 2017, A.Koh-Butler