Humility before God

Humility before God

To stand before you is a terrible thing,

Even though I long to be in your presence.

On those rare moments when we feel you are not veiling yourself to protect us,

Awe becomes trembling, edging on the verge of terror.

We do not really have words for it, so we say we are afraid,

But this is not sufficient.

You are just too much for us;

All our fuses blow

And we are exposed before your gaze,

So utterly worthless in comparison.

Yet fear does not tumble into terror

For we are lifted up by our adoration for you.

Held in exquisite tension between fear and love

We acknowledge you to be Lord

And in that we are fulfilled.

We have nothing to say about ourselves,

Nothing that we can offer you

Except to admit our unworthiness,

Even while elation soars through our souls

That we should be here with you.

Finding our thoughts, we babble our confession,

Blurt out our love,

Make extravagant promises,

But really nothing is required.

You are here, and we are face to face with you,

With God, who is before and within and beyond everything.

There is no greater gift or experience or goal.

And when the glory fades enough for us to see ourselves,

We know that we need to be different, to be better, to be other,

And we desire with all our hearts that this should be so,

And we give ourselves to you afresh that your grace may work in us to make it so.