What happened to you?
I was raised in your old pews
And was taught deep faith.
I don’t recognize all this.
I lament what I now see.

It was not easy.
You remember the good things.
In my family
There have always been battles
As people work through this life.

Can we just go back
To the time of innocence 
When it all seemed well
Before our eyes were opened
And we saw through the curtain?

Those days were hard days.
People fought to bring the light
To entrenched evils.
People died to get us here
Where martyrs may yet come forth.

What should we do then?
Everything seems far too large
For my human hands.
Where should we go in these days
When all may be asked of us?

Let us go to pray
At the feet of my Lover.
My Love is as near
Now like once in Babylon
And in cold dark Roman cells.

Come near to the fire.
No fiery furnace burns hot
as my Love’s passion.
The days ahead may yet burn
But you will always be loved.

“A Poem born in Prayer” by the Distracted Pastor, 2019

I wrote this prayer poem in a conversation between my soul and God. The bold parts are a personification of the church. I was reminded in that time of prayer that nothing in the church was ever perfect. We cannot go back. The only way is forward.