Free us from self-fascination

Lord Almighty, we say we want to serve you, we say we want to help others less fortunate than ourselves, we say we want justice.  But the truth is, we want power and status because we so desperately need to be loved.  Free us from our self-fascination and the anxious activity it breeds, so that we might be what we say we want to be – loved by you and thus capable of unselfish service.  Amen.

(Prayers Plainly Spoken, Stanley Hauerwas)