With Open Hands

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,

have mercy on me.

I come before You with nothing to defend

and nothing to claim.

Strip from me every desire

except the desire for You.

If there is pride in me, humble me.

If there is fear, purify it.

If there is self-will, break it gently.

If I have mistaken my own voice for Yours,

let silence reveal it.

But if through all these years

You have been teaching my heart a language

I did not know I was learning,

give me the humility to recognize it

and the courage not to turn away.

I do not ask to know what will become of me.

I do not ask that anything be preserved—

name, place, work, dignity,

or anything I have called my own.

Only do not let me live divided before You.

Lead me where repentance is possible.

Lead me where my heart may become still.

Lead me into the communion of those

who have sought Your Face in tears,

who have descended into the heart

and found You waiting there.

Let me come as one who knows nothing,

deserves nothing,

and brings nothing

except his wounds, his sins,

and his desire for You.

Teach me again how to stand before You.

Teach me to receive rather than grasp,

to obey rather than arrange,

to repent rather than explain.

And if the road before me requires

the relinquishing of what I have been,

let me relinquish it without bitterness.

If it requires waiting,

let me wait without demanding certainty.

If it requires hiddenness,

hide me.

If it requires becoming small,

make me small.

Only grant that I may not betray

what You have made clear in the depths of conscience

through fear of what obedience to it may cost.

I place the past in Your mercy.

I place the future in Your providence.

I place those whom I love in Your keeping.

And I place myself before You

with open hands.

I am not Providence.

You are God.

You know me.

You know the road by which I have come.

You know where it leads.

That is enough.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

have mercy on me, a sinner.

And lead me home.