Gather Me Now by Ted Loder

O God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me.

Soothe my tiredness;

quiet my fretfulness;

curb my aimlessness;

receive my compulsiveness;

let me be easy for a moment.

O Lord, release me from the fears

and guilts which grip me so tightly;

from the expectations and opinions

which I so tightly grip,

that I may be open to receiving,

to learn something refreshingly different.

O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

Forgive me for claiming so much for myself that I leave no room for gratitude;

for confusing exercises in self-importance with acceptance of self-worth;

for complaining so much of my burdens that I become a burden;

for competing against others so insidiously that I stifle celebrating them

and receiving your blessing through their gifts.

O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

Keep me in touch with myself,

with my needs,

my anxieties,

my angers,

my pains,

my corruptions,that I may claim them as my own rather than blame them on someone else.

O Lord, deepen my wounds into wisdom;

shape my weakness into compassion;

gentle my envy into enjoyment,

My fear into trust,

my guilt into honesty,

my accusing finger into tender ones.

O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

–Loder, Guerillas of Grace