Someone Else's Prayers

Last weekend Missy read a prayer by Ted Loder from his book Guerillas of Grace. The full version of the prayer is below.

But before you get there, a couple of questions to comment on:
1. Do you ever use other people's prayers as a part of your life with God?
2. If so, what do they mean to you? How do they help you? Any books of prayers you'd recommend to the rest of us?
3. Do you ever write your own prayers out? Why? In what format?

There is Something I Wanted to Tell You by Ted Loder

Holy One, there is something I wanted to tell you, but there have been errands to run, bills to pay, arrangements to make, meetings to attend, friends to entertain, washing to do...and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you, and mostly I forget what I'm about, or why. O God, don't forget me please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Eternal One, there is something I wanted to tell you, but my mind races with worrying and watching, with weighing and planning, with rutted slights and pothole grievances, with leaky dreams and leaky plumbing and leaky relationships I keep trying to plug up; and my attention is preoccupied with loneliness, with doubt, and with things I covet; and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you, and how to say it honestly or how to do much of anything. O God, don't forget me please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Almighty One, there is something I wanted to ask you, but I stumble along the edge of a nameless rage, haunted by a hundred floating fears of nuclear war, of losing my job, of failing, of getting sick and old, of having loved ones die, of dying...of having no one love me, not even myself, and of not being sure who I am or that I am worth very much, and...I forget what the real question is that I wanted to ask, and
I forget to listen anyway because you seem unreal and far away, and I forget what I have forgotten. O God, don't forget me please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

O Father in Heaven, perhaps you've already heard what I wanted to tell you. What I wanted to ask is, forgive me, heal me, increase my courage, please. Renew in me a little of love and faith, and a sense of confidence, and a vision of what it might mean to live as though you were real, and I mattered, and everyone was sister and brother.

What I wanted to ask in my blundering way is don't give up on me...don't become too sad about me, but laugh with me, and try again with me, and I will with you too. What I wanted to ask is for peace enough to want and work for more, for joy enough to share, and for awareness that is keen enough to sense your presence...here, now, there, then, always.