Poison Pie Publishing House: A Prayer for the Ambivalent




A Prayer for the Ambivalent

Lord, I come to you again in prayer,
asking You to bestow a blessing upon those
who, in the pursuit of Your wisdom
consider deeply the consequences

of their actions before they take them,
who imagine the possible outcomes
of a variety of choices for each decision,
who engage in what we might generally

consider the virtue of reflection
before reacting to external stimuli.
In Your all-encompassing knowledge,
You are already well aware of those

who, perceiving the extent of their choices,
find none of them acceptable and who
consequently refuse to act at all.
They are paralyzed, not by indecision,

but rather by a rejection of all options.
Lord, for those who suffer from the malady
of ambivalence to the point of abnegation,
I ask that you strip them of all fore-thought.

Let them act without knowledge
of the repercussions of their choices.
Let them remain ill-informed. Let them
not learn from their mistakes. Let them

live as children live, whose short-sightedness
is tolerated out of discretion if not kindness.
Let them, above all else, suffer
the consequences of their actions.

Lord, eradicate the ambivalence
of Your people, for we have lived
too long under its manifold shadows
and we yearn only to be faced

by a simple clear-cut choice,
which once made, leads directly
to a preternaturally serene
and preferably eternal paradise.






A Prayer for the Ambivalent
David Keffer
Knoxville, TN
October 24, 2014

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