What I Want... (A New Year's Prayer)

I want to believe that I don't just create God in my own image, cutting and pasting the texts of Scripture to suit my own fancy. (But I suspect that I, and almost all other Biblical scholars, do).

I want to be set free from slavery to gluttony, lust, laziness, pride, anger, despair and greed.

I want to wake up in the morning and be filled with gratitude rather than feel like I have a hangover from the previous day.

I want to be part of a church where I can be who I am and not put on a face and not act like everything is alright.

I want to want God.

I want to share my life with the poor, to resist the urge to escape from poverty, and to embrace a life of simple solidarity with the broken as the will of God. And I want to find peace and joy in doing so.

I want to stop medicating myself with all the wrong things.

I want to long to read the Bible more than I long to read the newspaper or long to watch television or long to surf the web or long to sit and watch paint dry.

I want to stop feeling like somehow the Bible demands that I look down upon, judge, or oppose the civil rights of homosexuals.

I want to learn how to pray.

I want to lose weight.

I want my family to know how much I love them and hate how I treat them when I'm in a bad mood.

I want 2009 to be a better year than 2008.

Amen.