Revelation and a prayer for disturbing

Yesterday I was preparing to teach a Sunday School class at North Cincinnati Community Church based off of D.A. Carson's book The God Who Is There:  Finding Your Place in God's Story.  It's a great book that walks the reader through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and connects the themes throughout.  This week is our last class and part of it is on "The God Who Triumphs."  At the beginning of the chapter Carson asks where our treasure is (based off of Matthew 6:19-21).  He says, "...if what you value the most has to do with treasures down here--things that may in themselves be good, things to appreciate and for which to give thanks--if that is the entire horizon of your treasure, that is where your heart will go."  He then speaks about places in the world where there is persecution and great suffering for Christians and that in those places it's easier to look forward to what is to come - the New Heavens and New Earth.  But, "if we live in parts of the world that are lavish in the goods of this world, our hearts will easily pursue what is here and rarely get excited about what is to come."

Then I was glancing at a friend's blog (Missy Kollar) and she had posted this poem/prayer by Sir Francis Drake.

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when

with the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Where storms will show Your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push back the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,

Who is Jesus Christ.

I'm almost scared to pray that, but in my heart I'm not.  When you look at the vision given to John of the New Heavens and New Earth in Revelation 21 & 22...there is nothing better.  May we be excited about not only what is to come, but about what we have right now in Jesus Christ!