Humble Us

Loving God, please humble us. Loosen our grip on power and break our fixation on control. It is easier for us to control people than it is for us to love them. It is easier for us to own life than it is for us to live it. Humble us so that we might have your attitude, an attitude of gentleness and not of exploitation. When the end seems near it is so natural for us to turn to aggression and violence, to stand up for our rightness rather than love. We see no other way to preserve ourselves and our values. But we are invited to follow you in the way of the cross, trusting that when all seems lost and when death and failure seem immanent, resurrection is right around the corner. Humble us, Lord, for bearing your image is our only goal. The outcomes belong to you. Here they are--our outcomes, our expectations, our sense of rightness--take them from us!

We pray in the name of the one who refused to give into the temptation of power, who forsook all but love, who suffered and died in utter failure ...and was exalted to the highest place. We pray in the name of your beloved son who takes away our sin. We pray in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.