Thursday, January 30, 2014

We Shall Find the Stars


Every now and then, I discover a phrase, a paragraph, or a poem wherein a feeling I had, deep down inside, is somehow articulated far beyond what I had ever thought possible. C.S. Lewis does this the most frequently of any other writer I have read to date, leaving many of his words permanently engraved in my mind. Today, however, I share with you a prayer that brought me almost to tears, penned by a man not famous for his words, but for his seamanship. A man of action, he clearly saw the dangers and the missed opportunities of a life lived in the safe zone, and he not only feared, but fled, the consequences of complacency.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of 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."

-- Prayer of Sir Francis Drake, 1577
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disturb us, Lord. We long to see the stars.






photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/533269264/

1 comment:

Ruthie H. said...

Sarah, thanks for sharing this beautiful poem! I am tempted to print it out and post it somewhere so that I am reminded of its important message.