I Thank You for Those Things that Are Yet Possible

Ted Loder is a retired United Methodist minister. He's written several books of poems, prayers and reflections. His use of language, his grappling, and his honesty all resonate deeply with me.

I find that I turn to Loder more and more for my own meditation and quiet time, yet his writings are also a rich resource for poems and prayers that I use on Sunday mornings. I have recently started using some of his poetry in memorial services.

Last Sunday I used a portion of one of Loder's poems in a memorial service that truly was a wonderful celebration of life. It is entitled "I Thank You for Those Things that Are Yet Possilble," and it's from his book, Guerrillas of Grace. Here is the bit that I read:

O God of timelessness
and time,
I thank you for my time
and for those things that are yet possible
and precious in in:
daybreak and beginning again,
a word of forgiveness,
and sometimes a song,
for my breathing . . .my life.

Thank you
for the honesty which marks friends
and makes laughter;
for fierce gentleness
which dares to speak the truth in love
and tugs me to join the long march towards peace;
for the sudden gusts of grace
which rise unexpectedly in my wending from dawn to dawn;
for children unabashed,
wind rippling a rain puddle,
a mockingbird in the darkness,
a colleague and a cup of coffee;
for all the mysteries of loving,
of my body next to another's body;
for music and silence,
for wrens and Orion,
for everything that moves me to tears,
to touching,
to dreams,
to prayers;
for my longing . . . my life.



Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace. (San Diego: LuraMedia, 1984) p. 42