Lord, forgive us. For we presumed that we could hold You, the God of the universe, inside our box and stack You neatly on the shelf to get You out on Sunday. But You don’t live in walls, for the world is Your cathedral and all this space is Your space.

You gave us this day and every other day and the next breath that fills our lungs so that we could keep living and moving and You have every right to enter into our everyday mundane. And somehow we keep forgetting You. It’s preposterous that we would, but we do. You who keep giving us all the moments that make up our life so that at this very second we can say that You are here and always You are here and that makes all of life sacred.

And have mercy, Lord, because we have thought that You would be impressed with our goodness and all the times we get it right and grow better than our brothers. We thought that You would like us more if we kept track of our numbers and grew in stature and attendance and we measure our worth and tally it up and brag of our accomplishments on the parking lots and street corners.  Our heads have grown puffy, too and our hearts bleed out but we are not aware.

Oh Lord, forgive us for You dwell with the broken and the humble and the desperate for You and the lost without You and we weren’t bowing down because we were busy trying to measure up. Would You show us our true condition?

And Heavenly Papa, remind us again that Your Name is most important, not ours. But it’s Your fame and Your renown that is shouted from the skies and echoed here in woodlands. For You are like the sun and we are like the moon and our face shines because Your face shines on us. God, You alone are the burning blaze of glory and we are lovely when we are reflecting You.