I was thinking through the prayer we know as “the Lord’s Prayer.”

I repeated the words in my head:
“Thy kingdom come
thy will be done
in earth as it is in heaven.”
I started to think,
“Most people miss the phrasing
as they repeat the poetry,”
We read it sing-song,
rhyming “come” with “done.”
“Most people,” I thought,
don’t see that it says
‘thy will be done on earth as is it in heaven.'”

And I stopped short.

I often engage in most people thinking:

Most people wouldn’t see this.

Most people don’t understand that.

Most people simply rush on by.

Most people are afraid to jump.

Unless you are like most people
you think this way, too.

But what if Jesus wasn’t handing his followers
an imprecatory prayer to call
down the fiery will of God
on the unsuspecting most people
who disagree with what we agree on?
What if Jesus wasn’t giving permission
for boundaries and barriers?
What if Jesus wasn’t talking to most people?

What if he was talking to me.
And what if he was offering me an invitation to repeat.
A request to whisper quietly at the beginning of the day.
A wishful affirmation to repeat
with would-be friends, want-to-be friends,
regardless of our current state of
affection for or disaffection with
each other.
A plaintive whimper of a child
to her dad in the middle of the
night, uttering words he has taught
her to always say when things are
at the edge of falling
apart.
A solemn declaration before the
hardest day of your life so far,
as you are about to tell the truth
again for the first time and
you need to be sure that it is
the right thing to do:

“thy will be done on earth, in me, by me,
with the same fealty and trust
and confidence and compassion
and utter dependence on you as happens
when your will is done
in heaven.”