God.

We often want a king.

We tell you we want a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles.

We tell you that you are nice, but we can’t see you.

And because we can’t see you, we aren’t sure how much we can trust you.

So we want someone we can see.

A king. An influencer. A broker. A fixer. A physician. A hero.

We want more than you.

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That’s really hard to admit.

Today, help us, please, to see with your eyes, not our own.

Help us to understand how Paul could look at all the hardness of his life,
the beatings, the betrayals, the Roman domination, the sheer transience of his life,
and say, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

Forgive us our worship of anyone other than you and any ways other than yours.

Help us to not lose heart.

We ask through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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Reflecting the reading for today from 1 Samuel 8:4-20 and 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1