A rabbi asked successful basketball coach Phil Jackson for a copy of a Lakota Indian prayer, which went:
O great spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds
And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me:
I come before you one of your many children.
I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes
Ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
And my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things
You have taught my people,
The lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength not to be superior to my brothers
But to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me ever ready to come to you
With clean hands and straight eyes
So that when life fades as a fading sunset
My spirit may come to you with out shame.
How far distant is that from the Christian prayer?
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
The breadth of pain throughout the world makes it difficult for me to view God as "father," but I am grateful for everything that I have - it all comes from God. And acknowledging myself, my ego, as my own worst and ever-present enemy... brings me in harmony with that Lakota prayer.
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