Faith: Disturbing the Already Disturbed

This morning, I attended the Pasig Feast. During Bro. Obet's talk, they flashed a prayer, and we were asked to read parts of it. The prayer was "Disturb us, O Lord."

I've encountered the prayer before. And while I was reading it aloud together with the other attendees, I somehow stopped and stared at the lines. My friend, who was sitting beside me, I realized, also stopped reading. Then we both laughed.

As it is, our lives are already disturbed. Actually, we don't know if we want more disturbances right now. Haha!

But I still posted parts of it on my Facebook account. And I am writing about it here. Because some lines struck me:

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Where storms will show Your mastery...

I just thought I'd hang on to my edited Prayer No. 1. I don't understand why things happened the way they did, and whether there's even a purpose for it. But maybe, just maybe, it's one of those few things with a purpose indeed, and it will unfold in time.

I'm hanging on to hope. Sana it is granted. Not just for me and my siblings. Above all, it's for my parents. Mataray man ako at matigas ang ulo, love ko sila. I am praying for their happiness, for the best that life can still offer them.

I know at a certain point, I need to let go and let God. I can't keep telling God what to do. I just need to ask, and now that I have, to just trust Him. Argh. This is difficult to someone like me who wants to be in control of things. Grrr.

Pero fine. I'm trying. Really. I mean I will try, starting tonight.

Below is the complete text of the prayer. (Copied from http://churchedge.blogspot.com/2007/11/disturb-us-o-lord.html)

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we 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 wilder 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 back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

Sir Francis Drake