chris erdman

From Facebook, Lydia Morris commented yesterday on my Flamenco and Prayer post. “Wish I could pray like that,” she says, “strong, fearless, bold, and with all of my everything. Oh how the enemy will tremble when the we fall madly, insanely in love with our God, and can dance and pray with nothing held back. I see Jesus now inviting His beloved to dance.”

Last December 31, 2008, I wrote this poem that improvises on the same theme:

Teach Us to Pray

And this is what I saw–

Leviathan leaping,
full length,
in radiant delight,
up from the dark depths of Mystery.

The night sky, clear;
the moon full
casting its silver light across
the whale-fractured sea.

And then,
she crashes full length
A million silver shards
dancing their holy glee.

As she
disappears again
into the dark, silent depths,
to soak in Thee.

Why then
pray like some dead fish
in this, God’s sea?

Dance, fly,
play, plunge.
That’s what prayer is meant to be.