Bring Me Back

The following reading works well as a prayer to end a sermon or worship set on brokenness and repentance.

Father God, the one who pursued me…

I repent of my prayerlessness
My carelessness
My discouragement because of flesh
My pride when I need brokenness.
Too many times I have fallen back on my own devices
Seeking things, seeking answers, seeking acceptance
I cry out to circumstances
And the more I seek to do
The more a fall away from You.
I use words to manipulate
To compensate
To demonstrate my own righteousness
I trust my public spokeness
While You long for my private brokenness
Holy brokenness of pride
Where grace and mercy reside
Grace that pierced your hands and side.
Brokeness brings self-confidence to dust
That turns my doubting into trust.
Every hurt that I’ve been through
When I’ve wondered what to do
Brings me back to faith in you
I find in these days, in my fallen ways
That I’m so far away from what’s true
And now my cry is Lord bring me back to you.
Bring me back to my passion
A divine realization,
the days of pure joy in salvation
Bring me back to total trust in your grace
When all I seek is Your holy face.
My trust in self tends to misconstrue
So God bring me back to You.

I Am America

Reader #1: I am a nation birthed from a yearning to breathe free. I am freedom’s shore. I came hundreds of years ago to find a haven where I could worship my God.

Reader #2: I found hunger, disease, and fear. I suffered torturous winters and sweltering summers, but the walls of a dictator no longer consumed me. I was free, and the freedom that I felt was worth the struggle. I died a thousand deaths to keep my freedom.

Reader #3: I was seized by ship, hunted like a wild animal across the barren beaches of my eastern coast. I was beaten, hanged, and buried, but not defeated. Never defeated . . .

Reader #4: I was brought here not by choice. I was shipped to this land by men who bought and sold me like cattle. A slave—I had no choice. I had no ownership, but my heart dreamed of a day when freedom would sing my name. I lived only for the promise of the fiery chariot that would take me to a land of true freedom. And now after centuries of struggle and destitution, I too am this nation. Once kidnapped by it, now a part of it.

Reader #5: I heard of the millions being slaughtered in gas chambers and concentration camps, and I ruthlessly sought to destroy the villains who would commit such atrocities. I am a hero. I had mercy upon those who had no mercy on me.

Reader #6: I have seen the scandal, humiliation, triumph, and assassination of my leaders. I have longed for freedom and yet have abused the very tools of its making. I have killed the innocent, murdered the wise, and ignored the poets of each generation. Still, in my heart is a hope that has never diminished, a hope that was rooted on my day of birth. I have pledged my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor on that hope that I will be free. Will I seek not only peace and freedom, but also the Author of peace and freedom? Only God can say, for it is He who must be sought, and if I do not seek Him, I will never know.

Reader #7: I am Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, and King. But I should never forget that I am also Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Manson, and Al Capone.

Reader #1: I will only rise if I am willing to fall.

Reader #2: To fall to my knees

Reader #3: and recognize the God that brought me here.

Reader #4: I am the best and the worst of man.

All: I am America.