When I commend my spirit
to the hands of the Father
I find the ultimate freedom

When I try to manage my own spirit
I imprison myself in my own narrowness,
in my own frail, tiny hands.

“The Father is greater than I.”
That truth gives me space
and wide, unlimited margins
in which to romp and roam.

There is security
in the hands of the Father
even when adversity strikes.
Jesus was nailed to a cross
but his spirit was free,
free in the hands of the Father.

The hands of the Father
are large enough to hold me
and my history and destiny,
my follies and my blessings,
my contradictions and my consistencies.

There is no snatching
from the hands of the Father.
It is a place of security and peace,
celebration and serene safety.
The very depth of the security
bestows the energy and compassion
to serve and risk for others.

Security leads to risks.
Insecurity leads to immobility.
To be secure in the hands of the Father
mobilizes the believer for mission.
To seek security in one’s own hands
is to be immobilized in a tiny world.
Better and braver the hands of God
than my own hands bound to severe confinement
and fearful frontiers of suffocation pressures.

- Fr. Gerald Keefe