Created: 2010

Words:

Help me Dear Lord,     to care too much,
to love too freely,
    to pray unceasingly,
to forgive endlessly,
    to laugh fearlessly,
to question,
    to live,
to be who I am,
    to be where I am,
to be what I am,
    to hope,
         to believe,
                to reach out my hand.

Background:

The 'Help Me' poem was written as a response to a piece of art I created called The Name of the Lord and was published in my Life in Christ book. Somehow it needed to become more than just another poem and be allowed to grow into a piece of art in its own right. Much of the artwork around the words takes the form of decoration or illumination and serves as a vehicle for meditating on the words, try following the weaving lines with your finger or eye.

The rest of the artwork illustrates the words of the poem with additional ways of thinking about them, so a hand resting on a head with the words 'seventy times seven' represents 'To forgive endlessly' and a blooming colourful flower with the phrase 'water often' is the image for 'To live' - suggesting that we aim for a full, vivid life regularly 'watered' with the presence of God.