This week I am sharing a song I wrote that can be a prayer. I hope perhaps as you listen or read the words, you can pray it along with me. Below you'll find some words of introduction, then the lyrics of the song.
All of us have times in our lives when we face hard things, challenging things - situations in which it can be hard to know how to pray. In our school community, we are no exception to this reality. I am especially aware of the many challenges that the leaders within the school are facing day by day.
In the Bible, Jesus talks about two different people who prayed. The one person prayed a prayer that more or less said, Thank You God that I have it all together. Thank You that I'm not like these other people, these sinners and people who get everything wrong. The other person prayed a prayer that was just basically an outpouring of his soul, saying God I need help. His actual words were, God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am.
My hope is that this song can be a little bit like that second prayer - coming from a place of humility and a sort of desperation - crying out to God to have mercy.
The song starts out by saying, "In this time of lamentation..." and it may be worth noting that I started writing it early in the pandemic. It was a time when it did feel like we were losing so many things and it was such a big deal in the world that it felt right to call it a time of "lamentation". Looking at it more recently, though, I came to realize that I didn't really fully know what the word lamentation actually means. So I decided to look it up.
The thing I found interesting was that part of the definition of lamentation was that it's an outpouring or a passionate expression of grief and sorrow. I have to wonder if, as much as there is a call to pray for God to pour out His mercy (like the chorus of this song expresses - pour out Your mercy, Your grace, Your wisdom, we need You God...), there is along with that a call for us to pour out to God our own sorrow and griefs, our troubles if you will.
Maybe there is some kind of healing and power that comes forth when both of those things are happening - when we're asking for God to pour out His mercy and the good things that are of Him, and at the same time we ourselves our pouring out the heaviness and weight and sorrows that we're carrying around. Perhaps when both of these avenues are open, there is a meeting that will happen and it will change us.
May it be so.
"Pour Out Your Mercy", words and music by Carrie Warner (click here to listen)
In this time of lamentation
We call upon Your name
While the world around keeps changing
Will You stay the same?
We are weary,
We are longing,
We are trusting, We are hoping,
Oh Lord, hear our prayer
Pour out Your mercy,
Pour out Your grace,
Pour out Your wisdom,
We need You in this place
Though the way may seem uncertain
We lift our eyes to You
Remind us now that in Your mercy
You will see us through
We are weary,
We are longing,
We are trusting,
We are hoping
Oh Lord, hear our prayer
Pour out Your mercy,
Pour out Your grace,
Pour out Your wisdom,
We need You in this place
Kyrie eleison
Christe eleison
We are weary,
We are longing,
We are trusting,
We are hoping
You are faithful,
You are holy,
You are loving,
You are with us,
Oh Lord hear our prayer
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog and pray for Alliance Christian School District! Lord willing, I plan to publish a new blog post weekly throughout the school year. Feel free to subscribe (at the bottom of this page) if you'd like to be notified each time a new blog post has been published. We also have a prayer team that is always open for new pray-ers to join. If you'd like to learn more, email me at cwarner@alliancechristian.org.
~ Carrie Warner, ACSD Prayer Team Coordinator
Soli Deo Gloria
To God alone be the glory
