Here’s
a blessing inspired by Mark 8:35. It was
written by Jan Richardson, and posted on The
Painted Prayerbook.
Blessing in the Round
(inspired by Mark 8:35, Matthew 16:25)
For
those who want to save their life will lose it,
and
those who lose their life for my sake,
and for
the sake of the gospel, will save it. Mark 8.35
This
blessing
cannot
help it;
it’s
the way
it
was designed.
Lay
it down
and
it rises again.
Release
it
and
it returns.
Give
it away
and
it makes a path
back
to you.
There
is no explaining
how
it delights
in
reappearing
when
you have ceased
to
hold it,
no
hiding the sly smile
it
wears
when
it shows up
at
your door,
no
mistaking the wonder
when
it circles back around
just
at the moment
you
thought you had
spent
it completely,
had
poured it out
with
abandon
where
you saw
the
deepest thirst for it,
had
put it entirely
in
the hands
of
those desperate
in
their hunger.
But
here it is,
the
perfect circle of it
pressing
into your hand
that
curls around it
and
then lets go,
receiving
and
releasing
and
receiving again
like
the breath
that
does not belong to us
but
sets us in motion.
~
written by Jan L. Richardson, and posted on The Painted Prayerbook. http://paintedprayerbook.com/
