it has been so gloriously warm here these past few days! 50 degrees- a heat wave in michigan. but now it is raining cold...

i picked up this book for 50 cents at the thrift store this weekend, Are You Running With Me, Jesus? by Malcolm Boyd. it's an unusual book of prayers written by this streetwise priest in the 1960's. as i understand it, the book was relatively controversial but very well-received because Malcolm attacks issues of the day, the nitty-gritty of all the suffering he was witessing, and he did it in everyday laymen's terms. i am almost finished with it, and definitely recommend it.
here are a few of my favorites:

You said there is perfect freedom in your service, Lord. You're over there where I'm keeping you, outside my real life. How can I go on being such a lousy hypocrite? Come over here, where I don;t want You to come. Let me quit playing this blasphemous game of religion with You. Jesus, help me to let You be Yourself in my life- so that I can be myself.

And, Lord, please keep us human and capable of weathering such minor- and major- disasters. Don't let us turn ourselves into machines, no matter how hard we seem to be trying.

I know we can't pass over this situation, yet we are somehow supposed to live with the outrage of doing exactly that. I see the beauty of your creation, and I am grateful, but then I see in my mind's eye the very real possibility of its destruction. How can I stand this, Jesus? What is prayer supposed to mean if I am passively accepting a peril which it is sinful to accept? I don;t want to misuse prayer to lull me about this crisis, Lord. I want to accept my responsibility of cooperating with you in the continuing and present act of creation. How can I do it?