I have a confession. When I read today’s entry from Neil, I was impressed by it, but I found myself distracted by the first paragraph. What a great story! But it came with very few facts, and no names, places, etc. Urban legend? Those exist in the church, too…
So, yes, I went digging. And it turns out, there is quite a bit of controversy over who penned this prayer. Mostly, folks fall into two camps: one, that a pastor martyred in Zimbabwe (no other info) wrote it, and the other, that a pastor of a sizable church in Seattle wrote it in his book, but took no credit for it. Incidentally, that pastor subsequently resigned after a moral failure.
I’m not very sentimental; I don’t appreciate heartwarming emails forwarded from well-meaning friends (sorry!), and I don’t like to feel emotionally manipulated. Probably my life is the poorer for it, but there it is – I’m kind of skeptical.
And there were numbers of posts on blogs about whether we can appreciate a piece that’s been well-written and inspirational, regardless of who wrote it – the consensus was yes, by the way.
But I came to a realization that all my research only did one thing: it distracted me from the impact of the piece. Whoever wrote it, the force behind it comes through with every word. It’s preachy, but it’s inspiring. It’s life, stripped down to the basics of why we’re here. And I’m going to choose to be inspired by it today.
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