Disturb us, Lord

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Amen.

(…and who wouldn’t add: “faith”?)

*        *        *

I discovered over at the  Discerning History website that there is not a conclusive link with this prayer and Drake, although there is some circumstantial evidence.  They write,

“Finding a source for this is far from easy. It is easy to find it quoted in many books, but only in books of inspirational prayers and quotes, not real history. These books rarely have footnotes, and finding the source of this quotation proved difficult. There is an article called Drake’s Prayer by D. Bonner-Smith from 1950 that examines the history of a prayer from Drake, but it runs much differently.”

In any case, it is a prayer well worth praying if you fancy a life-changing experience:  “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt 22:14) is not just a nice thought.