A heart redeemed

Let not my heart be, O Prime Mover...
A 'home for a time',
A divided house,
A riddle of locked doors,
A place of sinister slumber, peacefully and soundlessly sliding to destruction
Where we sup once a year in dusty, sharded crockery,
By compulsion and goaded by bridle, chaffing at the bit
Where live I by proxy,
To where I cannot remember the way,
The rubbish-tip of my being, a hovel,
Shifting sands moving with the wind,
A shanty where I live in the cold and in the rain,
In want, in defiance and independence, yet a prisoner of myself;
Me in a sealed space and thee in another
Me an entrenched, estranged son
And thou an utter stranger, sometimes admitted, mostly irrelevant.

If thou wouldst live in my heart, let it be...
First of all, thy residence, and thine forever
Where I live in unbroken, flowing relationship with thee, my Father,
In the eternal light of unending day.
A place of safety, of bridges to the wood burned;
Of no doors ajar for wind to blow in an unclean spirit,
Where we sup together in unbounded joy and unfettered trust,
No inner rooms barred from thine indwelling,
A place where every corner thy presence strangely warms and illuminates,
Where, turn where one will, knowledge of thee overshadows,
And the deathly chill has forever thawed, never to frost again.
Where thy light casts out all darkness,
Where thy fires burn brighter than day,
And thy good purpose and will are enduring themes,
Beacons to guide unerringly in a storm,
Where your Cross is never far away,
Where your blood covers all.

Sweep my soul clean, O Merciful One!
Let my heart burn within me as I walk to Emmaus by your side.
My heart only for thee, as thou hast shown thine for me!