Disturb us, Lord

"When people get comfortable they forget about God."  This is a quote I heard a few weeks ago at a Life and Justice conference. How true that is sometimes. At Ignite (a college group at my church) this week we had a couple who are going to go over seas as missionaries in two months. They shared with us about the work that they were going to be doing over there. They also challenged us to view the people around us in our daily lives the same way that they are going to be viewing the people in the foreign country. We need to have the same heart for the lost that we interact with everyday as we do for the lost in a far away country. The missionaries shared a poem with us that is extremely powerful. Here it is.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.


Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.


Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.


We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

      attributed - sir francis drake -1577