A Living Prayer

Yesterday afternoon I was out in the garage tidying up, putting stuff away on long, high up shelves. Without warning three six-foot shelves came away from the wall. Cans of paint, electric leads, random tools and various items that ‘might come in useful one day’, together with the shelves, all fell towards me. I found myself alone, trying to hold up a heavy weight that was out of my control…

This week I’ve met a number of folks who are alone, trying to hold up a heavy weight that’s out of their control. My mind went to this Alison Krauss song…

In this world I walk alone
With no place to call my home
But there’s one who holds my hand
The rugged road through barren lands
The way is dark the road is steep
But He’s become my eyes to see
The strength to climb my griefs to bear
The Saviour lives inside me there

This is an expression of faith. I don’t face life’s hardships and difficulties alone. In times of loneliness and despair, at times when I’m trying to hold up a heavy weight that’s out of control, I can find comfort and strength.

The song acknowledges God’s presence and power to bear the weight I have to carry, whether it’s life’s daily worries and responsibilities or it’s the unexpected crisis when everything falls on me. The repeated chorus, ‘Take my life and let me be, A living prayer my God to Thee,’ invites God to share my load, to support my falling shelves and all the random rubbish that’s on them.

In these trials of life I find
Another voice inside my mind
He comforts me and bids me live
Inside the love the Father gives

In Your love I find release
A haven from my unbelief
Take my life and let me be
A living prayer my God to Thee

It’s not surprising my shelves fell down. I put them up many years ago to carry a lot less weight than that which accumulated on them… There was a lot of noise and mess, but fortunately no elderly gentlemen were injured in the falling of the shelves and their contents, or the telling of the story…

It’s left me musing… The unwelcome and unexpected can happen at any time. The weight of random heaviness can come crashing around me; some falls, some remains precarious. As I’m trying to hold things up alone and my limited strength is tested and failing, I discover that God’s strong arm is their holding my load with me, for me.