Skin

For all the days when we

are train wrecks with skin on,

O God, we pray for the courage

and patience to let you gently gather

the widely scattered debris,

shift the track ahead with the tender but firm

fire of your Holy Spirit, and redirect

the engine and cargo of our lives toward

a destination of your choosing. 

For the few times when our own baggage

happens to have been recently secured,

our own cars uprighted and track-steadied,

give us compassion and courage

to offer all whom you've formed us into

and all with which you have gifted us

toward those whose own flesh

barely contains their current derailment.

Remind us that life is not a race

to the end of the track,

but a many-charactered story

whose mystic healer gave grace away

at every crossing; whose end came,

not when everyone had been convinced

or conquered, but when unconditional love

had been blessed, broken, poured out,

and shared with all who accepted

an invitation to table; invited,

not because of who they were

or what they'd amassed or accomplished,

but because they recognized,

if only for an instant, the freedom and power

in no longer pretending that their own lives

are a well-deserved, scenic tour of utopia.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins