Amy and a Prayer Against Efficiency

A Prayer Against Efficiency

Be still and know that I am God (Ps 46:10)

Micha Boyett - poet, former youth minister, reared Southern Baptist, practicing Presby-Anglican, student of Roman Catholic monastic life - speaks to my soul today and may speak to yours, too.

Life is so much more than our to-do lists, yet there are seasons in life where it seems like I spend my days only in and on endless to-do lists.

If you find yourself in one of those seasons of life, I hope that this portion of Micha Boyett's “A Prayer Against Efficiency” blesses you today.

Oh God beyond time,
beyond the number line,
the hourglass...
uncontained by our twenty-four hours,
free of our borders and yet still within them...

God, teach us to pause in this moment,
to tuck ourselves into the curve of your slow arm,
that we may know the miracle of now,
the gift of this moment:
You beside and beyond us,
welcoming us outside of all we measure,
and standing with us in it.
May we see the goodness of our still hours and days,
sunrises, sunsets, and the darkness where our rest is found.

Order us, that we may stand within time holding Your hand.
That we may know we are enough,
not because of what we make of these hours,
but because within these hours - with You -
we are being made.

Amen.

You can find this poem in A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal. ed. Sarah Bessey, Convergent Books, 2021.