SWIC prayer of the week 4.3.06

The Prayer of the Empty Water Jar

Jesus,
I come into the warmth of your presence knowing that you are the very emptiness of God.
I come before you holding the water jar of my life.
Your eyes meet mine and I know what I’d rather not know.

I came to be filled but I am already full.
I am too full.
This is my sickness.
I am full of things that crowd out your healing presence.
A holy knowing steals inside my heart and I see the painful truth.
I don’t need any more.
I need less.
I am too full.

I am full of things that block out your golden grace.
I am smothered by gods of my own creation.
I am lost in the forest of my own false self.
I am full of my own opinions and narrow attitudes,
full of fear, resentments, control
full of self-pity, and arrogance.
Slowly, this terrible truth pierces my heart.
I am so full there is no room for you.

Contemplatively, and with compassion, you ask me to reach into my water jar.
One by one, Jesus, you enable me to lift out the things that are a hindrance to my wholeness.
I take each one to my heart and I hear you asking me,
Why is this so important to you?

Like the murmur of a gentle stream, I hear you calling,
Let go! Let go! Let go!
I pray with each obstacle tasting the bitterness and grief it has caused me.

Finally…
I sit with my empty water jar.
I hear you whisper,
You have become a space for God.
Now there is hope.
Now you are ready to be a channel of life.
You have given up your own agenda.
There is nothing left but God.

(author unknown; prayer inspired by John 4:28)