We Yearn to Return to You

Our theme poem that will guide our thoughts and reflections during this Lenten

season is We Yearn To Return to You by Ted Loeder. Be attentive to a word or phrase that you are most drawn to as you read the poem?

God of long-suffering love,

since you have eternity

you seem willing to wait while we wander,

distracted by the pitch of a hundred hucksters.

That’s what your gift of freedom to us means.

So be less patient with us,

for our awareness sharpens

that our time is too short to waste any more.

We yearn to return to you,

but need, want, ask you

to break our infatuation with dabbling

and with dodging the claims of your kingdom.

Disrupt our frittering ways

harshly, painfully, if need be,

lest our deep longing for life and love

go forever unslaked.

Come now, Compelling Clarity,

like the lode star into the fog of our chaos,

that we may find ourselves

and the way to you who dwells

even in our sighs and tears,

our fretful stirring and weary running,

that in our turning and returning,

we be joined in the renewal of what you intended us to be,

and find resilience in the mystery and simpleness of you,

discovering, through the quietness and confidence,

strength to walk and not faint

as we seek redirection and integration

of ourselves and with community

in the gracious silence and sureness of you. Amen.

~Ted Loder, My Heart in My Mouth

Song: Return to Me by Shaina Noll

Return again, return again, Return to the land of your soul, Return again, return again

Return to the land of your soul, Return to what you are, Return to who you are, Return to where you are born and reborn again

Return to what you are, Return to who you are, Return to where you are born and reborn again

Return again (return again), Return again (return again), Return to the land of your soul

Reflection

1. You may want to journal about the word or phrase you chose. What drew you to this word or phrase? Feel free to share your word or phrase in the comment box.

2. What are your yearnings and desires for this Lenten season?

3. What does the landscape of your soul look like?