Article

A Liturgy for the Spiritually Exhausted

hamilton-barber-media
Hamilton Barber
2 Min

 

Jesus, I’m bringing you everything I have right now. 

I know it isn’t much. 


It’s all I could scrape together

in these long evenings

after longer days

before even longer tomorrows. 


I'm out of energy 

and I need you more than ever.


I don’t remember how I got here.

The wind washed away my tracks in the sand. 

Fog blanketed the cracking earth.

I can’t tell which way north is anymore.


Jesus, please make Your Word the light to my feet

You have promised it will be.


I am not apathetic to this broken world; I am exhausted.

Give me strength 

and break my heart for what breaks yours.


I am not bitter in this foreign land; I am dry. 

Give me the water from your fountain, 

which will never drain.


I am not faithless in these faithless days; 

I am spent.


Return to me the joy

and the miracle of my salvation. 


Oh, Maker of the stars, 

Everlasting Father who put eternity in our hearts—

nourish my body like bread,

nourish my spirit like art,

and fill my chest with wonderment.


Meet me underneath my Broom Tree,

I want to hear your voice again.

Let it seep into these parched places of my body.

Let it nestle into the hollows of my soul.


Let me rest under the shelter of your wings, 

And let me finally find the strength 

to journey where you’ll have me go.


I don’t want the right words to say

or the right rituals to perform

or the right feelings to feel

or the right words to learn;


I want only You.


With faith as small as a mustard seed,

that you promise is enough, 

I rest in Your assurance today.


hamilton-barber-media
Hamilton Barber
Hamilton Barber works for Passion City Church on the Film Team as a writer, making him the only person in the history of academia to actually use dubious undergrad degrees like Poetry and Philosophy. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Shelby: a content wizard and unashamed nerd, and their Chocolate Labrador, Baloo: a nap wizard and also unashamed nerd. Hamilton is an avid indoors man, an amateur builder of mind palaces, an embarrassment to the art of freestyle rapping, and frankly he's just generally glad to be here.