Disturb us, Lord, whenWe are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the
strength, courage, hope and love.
The above prayer was sent to me by a friend, and I liked it. I even like the fact it is attributed to Sir Francis Drake, the English privateer, navigator, politician, and slave trader. It fits in nice with the whole “history teacher” thing, don’t you think?
The word “attributed” is code for “we don’t really know”, so I went on a little research jaunt to discover a little more about Drake’s religious proclivities. His father was a Protestant farmer turned preacher. In 1549, however, being a Protestant during the Prayer Book Rebellion wasn’t a good thing as the family had to flee their home environmment for Kent.
Historians have been able to verify through other first-hand accounts that upon landing on the west coast of North America, Drake’s chaplain held Holy Communion; this was one of the first Protestant church services in the New World. From this it would seem that Drake was a believer.
Unfortunately we don’t have diaries or papers that could show us exactly how Drake felt about God, or how he was able to connect a Christian belief with being a slave trader and ruthless warrior and politician. All of his first-hand records from voyages, including his logs, paintings, and charts were lost when Whitehall Palace burned in 1698.
Also, Queen Elizabeth I decreed that all of Drake’s movements should be considered the highest of state secrets since the Spanish would have loved to obtain the mass of data Drake had acquired on his voyages, and they wouldn’t have minded getting their hands on Drake as well. While he was a well known English hero, the Spanish considered him nothing more than a pirate.
In fact, the Spanish nicknamed Drake, “El Draque”, probably originates from an old Spanish word meaning “the dragon”. The English etymological root is also the same since both languages are based in Latin. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Spain’s King Philip II placed a price of 20,000 ducats on the head of Francis Drake.
There is also other evidence to show Drake was not as Christian-like as we would wish him to be today……In 1578, Drake accused his co-commander, Thomas Doughty, of witchcraft during a shipboard trial. Mutiny and treason were also charges against Doughty. Drake did consent to have Communion with Doughty and actually dined with him as well, however, Doughty was beheaded on July 2nd, 1578 having been denied a request to see Drake’s commission from the Queen to carry out such trials and was also denied his request to be taken back to England for trial.
So much for Christian behavior.
While I have no problem asking God to disturb me and disturb me often, I am also disturbed a bit today by Mr. Drake.
2 comments:
This Prayer is exceptional and even tho I'm a guy, I would say this prayer was written by a woman .. as in .. they are more spiritual.
Instead of disturb, I use "lead me" this day. I'm open, I know your ways, Lead and Time my day, cram it full.
Hebrew .. each letter is also a number and God's name is yhvh .. Yehovah .. 10-5-6-5.
The fringe on the Garment of Jesus, in each corner there was a blue thread plus three white threads. And, the blue thread wasn't all blue. It was white and the white was half the length of the other three white threads and blue about three times the length of the overall length of each of the white threads. Search "how to tie a tzitzit".
Each corner of the garment had a hole in it and the three white threads were drawn through evenly. The white of the remaining thread was pulled through up to where it turned blue. A knot, double half hitch (google) it, was tied and the four white ends were also knotted with one knot to keep them separate.
Now, all seven white threads were gathered together and twisted to the right into a column and the blue thread was wrapped around it ..ten times .. double half hitch, the column was then made with a left hand twist and five wraps of blue .. and so one until you have wraps of 10-5-6-5 Adoni's name.
After the last double half hitch was tied .. four thumb nail widths of left over threads were measured and the ends were frayed off, not cut.
There are four of these for each of the four corners of your prayer shall which was about 56" x22" .. figure it out for your size and taste.
Pray covered in your private tent morning, noon and evening and on the new beginnings of a new moon in the Western sky .. and see what power you gain in your prayer life.
The thread that is part white and part blue .. who does it represent?
Mary and God .. Jesus.
What is the only way you can get completion .. seven .. Adoni rested on the seventh day .. completion?
In the threads of the tzitzit, only with Mary. The column of white .. wrapped with the blue .. Jesus wrapped around all of creation.
the woman with the issue of blood was unclean and could not touch a man. so she touched his fringe and was healed
Also, we are unclean .. also we can touch the fringe three times a day in prayer .. and smile as we think of the history that is going with our prayers.
Light frankincense as the Bible says, do not smell it, it is for God alone, and float your prayers up to Adoni with sweet perfume .. it is thought that an accelerator was burned with the frankincense to make it rise harder and the temple worshipers would not sin by smelling it. Never mix in oil or burn frankincense and myrrh together .. our Bible says never.
Congested, myrrh smoke. Used for thousands of years and given by the Maji for just this reason .. congested babies.
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