If You Find Yourself Praying

by M. Morford

If you find yourself praying
For the peace and prosperity
Of someone who has done you harm,
If you catch yourself
With a spiraling longing
That defies words,
Or if in the middle of the stillness of the night
You know
In your deepest emptiness,
That those who make your life a burden,
Who make you crazy,
And restless for a better place
Belong in your life
And are as essential as gravity
And serve as a reminder
That the real kingdom,
The only citizenship that matters,
Is the one that stretches beyond ourselves
And into the territory we were created to share.
And if you find yourself praying like this,
You may walk our streets
But you inhabit a different kingdom.