Lord, Prop Us Up

I received the following from one of our participants and thought I would share it with you on the blog. If you have something to share please send it to me.

While on retreat the members of Catholic Volunteers In Florida worked at the Camillus Home in Miami, Florida. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to over 300 homeless people every day. They do a whole lot more too! If you are interested you can check it out at www.camillushome.org.

Every time I am asked to pray, I think of the old deacon

who always prayed, 'Lord, prop us up on our leanin' side.'

After hearing him pray that prayer many times, someone asked him why he prayed that prayer so fervently.

He answered, 'Well sir, you see, it's like this...

I got an old barn out back.

It's been there a long time; it's withstood a lot of weather;

it's gone through a lot of storms, and it's stood for many years.

It's still standing.

But one day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit.

So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up

on its leaning side so it wouldn't fall.

Then I got to thinking about that and

how much I was like that old barn.

I've been around a long time.

I've withstood a lot of life's storms.

I've withstood a lot of bad weather in life,

I've withstood a lot of hard times, and I'm still standing too.

But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time,

so I like to ask the Lord to prop us up on our leaning side,

'cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times.

Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger,

leaning toward bitterness,

leaning toward hatred,

leaning toward cussing,

leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn't .

So we need to pray, 'Lord, prop us up on our leaning side,

so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.''


If you stare at this barn for a second you will see

who will help us stand straight and tall again...