HALLOWED BE THY NAME: Video Prayer

Happy Wednesday, friends! I wanted to share the next poem in the "Lord's Prayer Series" because I'm really digging the videos my church is putting out.

The poem in this video is based on the phrase"hallowed be Thy name." (I know all the cool kids say "Your name" nowadays but I memorized it in the old-school KJV, so it's "thy" til I die).

It's read by my friend Eric from First City (who also made the videos, because *talent*). When he asked me to write the poems, he sent me a list of the Bible verses the church planned to use to help us dive deeper into the Lord's prayer.

I printed all the passages, armed myself with markers and scissors, and went to work. You should have seen it. My counters were covered in random words, all highlighted and sliced up and spliced together. Think those collages on a serial killer's wall but less creepy.

All the passages were great - it's really hard to go wrong with the Bible. But one especially gripped me. It would be the image in the center of my bulletin board, with all the yarn and photos and sharpie lines tracing back to it (*too much?).

Anyway. It was the picture of Jesus in the garden. He knows what the next few hours will hold: abandonment, torture, humiliation, death. He will be stripped and assaulted while His closest friends scream that they've never met Him.

And He asks, "Are you sure, God? Do I have to?"

The angels come in the darkness to take care of Him while His friends sleep under a tree. He sweats blood and in the most heartbreaking, vulnerable "amen" of all time, He ends His prayer with: "What then shall I say, O Lord? Glorify Your Name."

And God was glorified. Absolutely He was glorified.

But what does it mean for me to pray this prayer?

Me, who is in the sweats I wore to bed last night and drinking cold coffee? Me, who spends my day driving kids to practice and mopping gatorade off the floor? Of course, Christ on the cross brought glory to God. But me?

I held this picture in my mind as I looked around my house, and I found myself praying words that felt both presumptuous and hopeful...

Could God be glorified in the rhythms of my daily life? In my alarm clock? In my morning coffee? In my failures?

So this is a prayer of recognition and rest. Because I think the answer to the questions above is yes.

Perhaps He will honor His name not because of the awesome or impactful things I do, but because of what He has already done. Perhaps bringing glory to God isn't a command, but a gift.

What then shall I say, O Lord. Glorify your name.

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"What then shall I say, O Lord? Glorify Your name.

In the rhythms of my daily life, glorify Your name.

In my buzzing alarm and morning coffee, glorify Your name.

In my busy hands and working mind, glorify Your name.

In my success and my disappointment, glorify Your name.

Because of Your love and truth, O Lord, glorify Your name. Because of Your power and precious promise, glorify Your name.

All that I hold in my hand is Yours. Glorify Your name."

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*video read and created by Eric Goodell for First City Church