Exploring the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us as we Forgive

Gracious and Generous God

Forgive us our trespasses,
careless or intentioned,
forgive us for our weaponized words and our callus overstepping
forgive us our tiny infractions and our massive oversights,
forgive us our trespasses, the boundaries we break
and the fences we need to mend.

Forgive us our sins, the hurts that sting and the wounds that cut deep,
forgive our comfort with heartbreak and our companionship with sacristy
forgive us our sins and teach us to do the same,
forgive us our willingness to nurse our wounds,
salt our cuts and pick at our scabs…over and over again.

Forgive us for seeking grace while refusing it for others,
forgive us our gossip and grant us courage to process with our whole hearts
forgive us our grudges and seed connection with life-giving friends.

Forgive us our debts, when we disrupt the balance of give and take,
forgive us our inaction when the scales fall in the favor of so very few
and the market isn’t actually free.

Forgive us our comfort with injustice
and grant us the courage to clear the balance sheets
that keep our neighbors feeling low.

Forgive us for accepting astounding interest rates and predatory lending as
respectable “industry” that doesn’t build or serve
but steals the hopes of our kin.

Forgive us the columns of compounding numbers
that transfer, zeros and commas
without any question of what does it mean
and who might it hurt.

Forgive us our debts, help us wipe the slate clean

Forgive us that we may forgive, heal, love, serve and grow.
May it be so.

Amen