A Fools Prayer

This is one of my favorite poems and one that I have some how been able to retain in my brain fairly accurately since high school. Would it be that we, like the proud king, be moved by such a prayer, church leaders and nation leaders as well.

From the pen of Edward Rowland Sill,

The Fools Prayer.

The royal feast was done; the king sought some new sport to banish care, and to his jester cried "Sir Fool, Kneel now, and make for us a prayer! "

The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool.

"No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

"Tis not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
Tis our follies that so long
We hold earth from heaven away.

"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go on crushing blossoms with out end
These hard, well meaning hands we thrust among the heartstrings of a friend.

"The ill timed truth we might have kept-
Who knows how sharp it peirced and stung
The word we had not sensed to say-
Who knows how grandly it had rung!

"Our faults no tenderness should ask.
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will; But thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!"

The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low
"Be merciful to me, a fool! "

That Stormy Sunrise Feeling

There is some sweet beauty in the sunrise after a black, stormy night. The clouds still black on their edges, centers of chrome and bright yellow, sometimes even red. Red typically tells us the storm isn't over but the rising of the sun gives a morning truce to the foulness to resume later.
If you're a Christian and have had that deep, long lasting pain that happens to everyone at sometime in their life, whether it be failing health, strained family relationships, death of a loved one, divorce, (insert pain here), you have probably had that stormy sunrise feeling. Sometimes it just feels like that gasp you get when can't swim and you've been under water way to long. It hurts, but you needed it and it gives hope that you might live. You might make it to shore. You might see a summer day again. You might win back the heart of your spouse. You might not have a migraine. You might stop crying from a broken heart. You might, please God, have another child. There is always that hope, that encouragement as a Christian.
The worse kinds of pain are the ones you can't see the end of. "Will I ever feel normal again". You avoid people because they ask those questions that well meaning, good people should ask. But you've heard them so much that you want to gag. Instead you want someone to ask about relieving diaper rash on a baby or for a recipe for that casserole or for help doing the brakes on their car. Anything to take your mind off your pain. Anything normal.

The most glorious, exhilarating time in these trials can be when you actually see how it has grown you. That stormy sunrise feeling reminds you briefly, the burden is not so burdensome. There may even be a point when you say "God, don't let this end until You've done Your work". Really that might just happen. There is nothing that compares with God bringing you to that point. There is victory in our defeat. It is sanctifying to be brought to our end, the beginning with God.

To often we want to end the pain before the trial, the surgery, is over. The Surgeon has not yet completed His operation and we roll off the table.It is ok and natural to want to avoid hurt. I think to often that I have not had satisfaction after a trial because I have artificially removed myself from it. It leaves one wondering "why?" and never finding an answer, never fully learning our lesson. We can escape God's lessons by seeking divorce, leaving a church, or ending a friendship, moving away or quitting a job.
This life is full of hurt. We cannot escape it. But our God is faithful to complete His work on us. We need to faithfully glorify Him for it.

It is a hot day today. Storms of winter and spring seem far away. But I will still be thankful come fall.