Give heed, all you of unquestioned comfort and careless ease:
You who know little of the underside of bridges, the short side of markets, the wrong side of the tracks or the inside of jails.
The Holy One of Heaven is neither kindly uncle nor auntie sweet.
God is not “nice.” God is no lucky charm. God is an earthquake.*
O Blessed Unrest, disturb the peace of the counsels of deceit.
Unnerve every congress of infamy. Shake the foundation of all insular living.
Come and wrangle our hearts with the dis-ease of your Love.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org, from In the Land of the Willing: Litanies, Prayers, Poems, and Benedictions. Inspired by “God of Tempest, God of Whirlwind” by Herman Stuempfle, Jr. *The line is variously attributed to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, as a Yiddish proverb and as a saying from Hasidic Judaism.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org