CALLED BEYOND COMFORT ZONE   

Alice YoungFrontPage, News, Pastor

“Called Beyond Comfort Zone” by Walter Brueggemann, 

We are among your called 

We have heard and answered your summons. 

You have addressed us in the deep 

places of our lives. 

In responsive obedience we testify, 

as we are able, to your truth as it 

concerns our common life. 

We thank you for the call, 

for the burden of that call, 

for the risk that goes with it, 

for the joy of words given us 

by your growing spirit, and 

for the newness that sometimes comes 

from your word. 

We have indeed been in the counsel of your 

Summoning spirit, 

And so we know some truth to speak. 

But we are, as well, filled with rich 

imagination of our own, 

And our imagination is sometimes 

matched and overmatched 

by our cowardice, 

by our readiness to please, 

by our quest for well-being. 

We are, on most days, a hard mix 

of true prophet and wayward voice, 

a mix of your call to justice 

and our hope for shalom. 

Here we are, as we are, 

mixed but faithful, 

compromised but committed 

anxious but devoted to you. 

Use us and our gifts for 

Your newness that pushes beyond 

all that we can say or imagine. 

We are grateful for words given us; 

we are more grateful for your word fleshed 

among us. 

from “Prayers for a Privileged People”, Abingdon Press, 2008” 

Photo by Ahmed M Elpahwee on Unsplash