I ask you, oh Lord,

To shape my desires

According to the cross.

 

Let me not demand

That my desires

Be met according

To my ways and my time.

 

Rather, take these desires—

Sweet as they may be—

And make of them

Something far sweeter

As I learn to trust you

In the slow waiting.

 

Help me to see in my desires

Reflections of you and your goodness

Coloring and shaping them

In glimmers of heavenly hope.

 

When the weight of these desires

Becomes too heavy for me

To bear on my own,

May I cast them on you

Knowing your love will hold them all.

 

Teach me not to despair

Or fall into selfish self-pity,

But rather turn my desires

Into prayer, service, and faith.

 

Open my eyes to the way

That this process—

The pang of longing,

The lament of absence,

The humility of submission,

The obedience of waiting—

Is shaping me to be more like you.

 

I know no other way

Than the cruciform way

Of laboring in secret places

In tearful, exhausted prayers—

 

–and I know this is the best way.

For you are refining me

Into pure gold

And the end result

Will be more beautiful

Than I can even imagine.

 

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash.