Comfort and Torment
To Enter the Narrow Door
Into the quiet of your abode
The tabernacle light leads me to your throne.
Surrounding You in color of stain glass images
My eyes, my heart look upward
To the place where You repose.
I feel the impulse of your love.
My feet propel my heavy form;
My cluttered mind seeks solace too.
Here, I think I will set today
My scarred soles with their tainted, dirty feet.
To entrust myself to your merciful love
This I ask: please accept my will;
This “I” of mine has often sinned;
Yet here I am upon my knees,
It is You alone I seek to please.
Without your help this door’s too narrow;
I have tried alone to no avail.
My bloated self has gorged too much the riches of the world;
Has left no room for You to enter as
“What one loves, one grows to resemble.”
Have ears O Lord to hear my cry;
My prayer of hope I give to Thee;
I seek to dwell within Yourself
To be your hands, your feet upon this earth
Until the day when all I do is give praise to You in paradise.
Give glory here to your holy name, I want;
My lips to lift up in wonder, not slander;
My tongue to spew golden words, not animosity.
My actions to express aloud what words only speak.
All laud and glory be for Thee alone.
As one made in his image and likeness
Let me be your messenger of truth;
Put deep within myself your thoughts divine.
I give myself totally, freely to You, so I may say
“I am yours today to do with as You choose.”