The Apologist’s Evening Prayer

C.S. Lewis sketched the following poem in the rise of his popularity as a spokesperson and defender of the Christian faith. His apologetic work took a toll on the man, and his poem serves as a helpful prayer for all who work to the advance the gospel in the public square:

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,

Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take me from all my trumpery lest I die.