For a fleeting irritation (and other liturgies)

A Liturgy for a Fleeting Irritation:

I bring to you Lord, my momentary irritation, 

that you might reveal the buried seed of it—not 

in the words or actions of another person, but

in the withered and hypocritical expectations 

of my own small heart. Uproot from this

impoverished soil all arrogance and insecurity that 

would prompt me to dismiss or distain others, 

judging them with a less generous measure that

I reckon when judging myself. 

Prune away the tangled growth

of my own unjustified irritations, Jesus, 

and graft to my heart instead your humility, 

   your compassion, 

   your patience, 

   your kindness, 

That I might bear good fruit in keeping 

with your grace.

Amen.

 

A liturgy from Every Moment Holy (Volume I) by Douglas Kaine McKelvey 

I was introduced to the above liturgy in one of Ben Sternke's weekly emails (Gravity Leadership). I LOVE this, and will likely (hopefully) remember to use it often.

I was also excited to see there are tons of these liturgies at everymomentholy.com. What an incredible resource (though they are not free).

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And, it's a good thing I had this post in my archives... because I was feeling some irritation this morning (just the all-too-normal work stuff)! So I've been praying it today.

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Proverbs 14:29

"Patience leads to abundant understanding, but impatience leads to stupid mistakes."