Praying with Stanley Hauerwas Pt. 1
This is from Hauerwas’ book Prayers Plainly Spoken. Sometimes the most destructive lies are the one’s we tell ourselves. We need to pray prayers like the following because it is in telling the truth that brings together the fractured self that runs from God, the self he’s calling into himself and into the world.
TRUE GOD OF TRUE GOD, create in us a passion for truth. Make us lust for, long for, taste, feel, roll in the grass of your love, your truth. Free us from the fear of truth by making us God-fearers. May we hate all that which would tempt us to settle for the greatest of all lies, the half-truth. So formed, give us simple speech, graceful speech, lovely speech, so that we might truthfully speak to one another, that we might love one another in truth. Honor us with honesty that we might be honorable and, thus, trustworthy people. Oh! We so long to be capable of trust. We are so tired, so bored, by our cynicism. So yes, dear Lord, we pray that you will make us truthful servants so that we may say to ourselves and one another, “You can trust me.” Amen.
