the back burner

quote of the day

"O Holy Spirit,
As the sun is full of light, the ocean full of water,
Heaven full of glory, so may my heart be full of Thee.
Vain are all divine purposes of love and redemption wrought by Jesus except
Thou work within,
Regenerating by Thy power,
Giving me eyes to see Jesus,
Showing me the realities of the unseen world.
Give me Thyself without measure, as an unimpaired fountain, as inexhaustible riches.
I bewail my coldness, poverty, emptiness, imperfect vision, languid service, prayerless prayers, praiseless praises.
Suffer me not to grieve or resist Thee.
Comes as power -- to expel every rebel lust, to reign supreme and keep me Thine;
Come as teacher -- leading me into all truth, filling me with all understanding;
Come as love -- that I may adore the Father and love Him as my all;
Come as light -- illuminating the Scripture, molding me in its laws;
Come as sanctifier -- body, soul, and spirit wholly Thine;
Come as helper -- with strength to bless and keep, directing my every step;
Come as beautifier -- bringing order out of confusion, loveliness out of chaos.
Magnify to me Thy glory by being magnified in me, and make me redolent of They fragrance."
from The Valley of Vision

I'm not always sure what to think about Puritan prayers (like this one). This one was printed in a church bulletin from last November. I just ran across it in Matt's Bible, and my first reaction was "Oh how lovely." There are certainly some nicely-turned phrases here, as well as some very Scriptural descriptions of the Holy Spirit's job.

But sometimes, prayers like this can be read two ways. I remember reading a prayer like this once, out loud, and a good friend took exception to it. It was a bit difficult for them to hear or read Puritan thoughts on spirituality because they were having difficulty separating hatred of sin from hatred of self. Are we as a church (particularly the Reformed thinkers among us) careful enough when we talk about sin to people struggling with self-blame, self-doubt, and self-revulsion? Those three things can cripple a human. How can the ways in which we consider sin lead to healing and not further debilitation?

I think this prayer IS lovely. That, I think, is the reason my friend Matt kept it in his Bible. But it is lovely to me because I can hear with confidence the grace that supports it. To my brothers and sisters deaf to this undertone, the prayer may sound less lovely more terrible -- less like Aslan and more like Queen Jadis of Charn.