“Only tears were sweet to me …”
-- Augustine
When only my tears taste sweet to me,
Show me Thy countenance, dear Yahweh.
I tried to run from Thee, in my pain, to sin;
Only to find there is no leaving Thee, except
To run “from Thee well-pleased, to Thee displeased”!
And so my flight into “the tumult of folly”
Led to punishments predicted by Thy Laws.
As none can defy gravity or nature’s rules,
So none can defy Thy holy Laws, Yahweh.
My soul is “tired out with vanities.”
“For whichever way a person’s soul turns itself,
unless it turns toward Thee,
it is riveted upon sorrows,
yea though it is riveted on
things beautiful!”
Now that only my tears taste sweet to me,
Please show me Thy countenance, dear Yahweh!
D. Leigh
* This prayer is inspired by Saint Augustine’s Confessions, with all quotations taken from book IV.
© 2005 David R. Leigh—Used by permission of the author. Downloaded from www.RethinkingFaith.com