A few years ago during Lent, I studied and prayed my way through a few “dangerous” prayers. Things like “search me” and “use me” don’t seem so crazy at first, but when you pray them honestly, expecting God to answer, you never know how that might change your life.
While reading through our all church study book, Joining Jesus on His Mission, I stumbled upon another beautiful, but dangerous prayer at the beginning of one of the chapters by an adventurer named Sir Francis Drake. As I read and re-read this prayer, part of me just wanted to run away, but part of me dared to adopt his “adventurer’s” heart and join in…
“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.
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.”
~ The prayer of Sir Francis Drake, adventurer (1577)
Whether I “want” to or not, I think it’s time in my life, and maybe American Christianty as a whole, to pray this dangerous prayer. Whether boldly, or reluctantly, it might serve us and God’s kingdom well, to be a little disturbed. And as we venture in, I’m grateful for the reminder I learned through those Lenten dangerous prayers: that when God calls us out of our comfort zone, He’s calling us into HIS comfort. He never leaves us. He doesn’t push us out, say “Good Luck!”, and walk away. He’s drawing out of our comfort zone so that we can be even nearer to Himself. While these types of prayers really do SEEM dangerous to us because they cause us to have to trust and not be in control, there really is no safer more beautiful place to walk than directly in the will of God.
Disturb me, Lord. Let my life be less about “getting it right” and more about my willingingness to just join you on whatever wild adventures You have in store. When I can’t see the whole picture, give me faith for just one more step. I don’t want to miss your beautiful grand adventure simply because I was scared to dream a little. As Zechariah prayed, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people… that we… might serve him without fear…” In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
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