Hide not your ear at our breathing

Lamentations 3:56.

Whatever our position in prayer,

if we can’t speak, cry.

If we can’t cry, groan.

If we can’t groan,

Then do “groans which cannot be uttered.”

And if we can’t even rise to that point,

let our prayer be at least a breathing—

We need to be outpouring our inner life even when simple & weak,

God will accept us.

when we can’t pray as we want,

pray as we can

Like a swallow `or’ a crane, so did I chatter;

I did moan as a dove; my eyes fail `with looking’ upward:

O Lord, I am oppressed, be my certainty.

We make cries like a bird;

We give out sounds of grief like a dove:

Our eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord,

We are crushed, take up our cause.

Isaiah 38:14