Merry Christmas to you…
Dec 24th, 2008 by Geoff
On the eve of Christmas I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and share a little prayer.
Enlightenment Please – But Not Just Yet!
Lord! God Almighty. (The universe).
A word if you don’t mind.
A word about me.
Actually, more precisely, a word about me and my specious requests.
When I beg you for enlightenment now! Without gestation or acclimatisation, know that I ask for more weight than I can currently hold. Please just proffer time and patience in its place and when I complain and complain (as I always complain) that ‘Lord, but I am ready’ I beg you to know that I am not ready. If I was so sure of myself I would not need to talk all the time.
And when I call for clement weather send me instead a north wind, the same wind you sent the Vikings. The wind that made the Vikings will surely make me.
And whilst talking of Vikings, when I ask for the warrior’s sword and armour, send me in its place a warrior’s journey and a map-less terrain that will layer fold over fold to my spirit. Because it is the hard passage that sculpts fine character, and setting our own course that inspires wisdom. Everything else is decoration.
And Almighty, when this journey brings me to doubt (which it must) and I plead for certainty please pretend that You misheard me and guide me instead toward faith where to know that there is too much to know is to know enough.
And on this long journey Lord I know that tiredness will call and him fallen will rest upon my weary back and whisper promises of ascension before the fortieth day. Sojourn me in the place of misery and wickedness if even a breath separates his tender from my negation, because what he calls the fast road I know to be death.
And when I ask for tomorrows due today because today’s seems a meagre store (and I will ask) please retreat me back to yesterday’s poverty so as I might better appreciate my current abundance: the present bliss.
And when bliss and difficulty swap their turn (as they are apt to do) and I plead for escape, please plunge me deeper into the forge that I might later emerge, if not a tempered blade at least a better man.
Judging also is not my strong suit Master, so when I point at others’ splinters please ram another mote in my eye and place me before my own reflection.
And when I look for lottery (as I always look for lottery) bring me not the loot of Solomon, just a looking glass will suffice and a reminder that I Am: and that is all the fortune I need.
And one more thing Great Christos, before I suffer yet another forgetting: if I keep making cloy my hanker, especially when I already have so much and others have so little, give it to me, satisfy my glut! Drown me in diamonds and pearls, carriages and caravans of precious metal, gift me 10 Rolls Royce and homes on every continent, give me the titles and the honours and the accolades cast in gold. Because if I keep asking for added worth without at least offering further labour then I deserve the road of the wicked, dark as night and that is surely where this greed will bring me.
Perhaps then along Blake’s road of excess I might, finally, find my palace of wisdom, the righteous road getting brighter and brighter until daylight comes.
Be well, but do not be hurried, whilst it is late, there is always time.
Geoff Thompson
24 December 2008