Wisdom

Heavenly Father,
We come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We
know Your word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that’s exactly what we’ve done. We
have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self- preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us;
cleanse us from every sin and set us free…
I ask it in the name of Your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
     this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery. 

- Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 1 

 
The man declares, I am weary, O God;
I am weary, O God, and worn out.

Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
I have not the understanding of a man.

I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.

Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?

Surely you know!

Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the LORD?”

or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God. 

-Proverbs 30:1-9, English Standard Version

Like art, the truths of religion require the disciplined cultivation of a different mode of consciousness. . .Religion is hard work. Its insights are not self-evident and have to be cultivated in the same way as an appreciation of art, music, or poetry must be developed,

Karen Armstrong, The Case for God