(Entire Prayer to be found at https://www.divinetruth.com/www/en/html/index.htm#prayer.htm)
“Thy will is that I become at one with thee…”
I’m told that the term ‘at one’ is the same as ‘new birth,’ a term that is confusing and misunderstood. In my lifetime, the people who have talked about being ‘born again’ seem to feel a variety of things: being washed in the blood of Jesus (icky!); being magically cleansed, as if God waves a wand so you can now ‘Pass Go’; or being ‘saved’ and guaranteed a spot in heaven, but the thing I felt mostly was a sense of ‘us and them.’
I always had the impression that they believed that a single act of will or a single prayer to God would set their lives on the right track and that it was all easy-peasy after that.
Not my experience I’m afraid. Neither does it make any sense, so it didn’t stick. What makes more sense are the people that really inspire me, the old, pain-ridden but patient and uncomplaining person in the nursing home, the very debilitated man who struggles so hard to keep helping others and to keep learning music, reading poetry, playing scrabble, the teenager who feels dumb and racially inferior but refuses to give up and to lose hope in his future.
Often these people have no sense of ‘being saved,’ and yet I feel that they are steadily making their way towards God, who has created a pathway where the bricks are love. “Thy will is that I become at one with thee…” To me this means, ‘Your deep desire is that I become able and willing to love as you love.’
Here’s a beautiful song, by Jesse Manibusan (or Michael Talbot)
Listen to it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbihOyKIvi8
Open My Eyes Lord
And the first shall be last and all eyes are open
We'll hear like never before
And we'll speak in new ways and we'll see God's face
In places we've never known
Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see your face
Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see
And open my ears, Lord, help me to hear your voice
Open my ears, Lord, help me to hear
And open my heart Lord, help me to love like you
Open my heart, Lord, help me to love
And the first shall be last and all eyes are open
We'll hear like never before
And we'll speak in new ways and we'll see God's face
In places, in persons, situations, circumstances
We'll see God's face in surprising places
Like we've never known
