Compassion

A Prayer for Mother’s Day

/ Greg Asimakoupoulos
Greg Asimakoupoulos and his late mother Star at the Owl Soda Fountain

Although Jesus called you Father,
You are like a mother, too.
You’ve been gentle, kind and merciful to me.
Like a mother hen You gather me
within Your outstretched wings.
Like a nursing mom You nourish tenderly.

Precious Lord, forgive my failings.
With compassion, hold me close.
Take my hand and calm me from the things I fear.
Whisper that You’ll never leave me,
that You’ll shelter me from harm.
Like a mother, please assure me You’ll be near.

In addition to each week’s post on this website, Greg Asimakoupoulos offers daily video devotionals on his YouTube channel. Here is a sample video. If you are interested in receiving these devotionals Monday through Friday, you can subscribe on YouTube by going to My Rhymes and Reasons.

A Prayer in Times of Disaster

/ Greg Asimakoupoulos

Lord, comfort those who grieve this day
in LA and DC
who (numbed by sorrow)
find it hard to feel.
Sustain the victims of despair
with undergirding grace
as they accept their plight and start to heal.

May we who have a role to play
in minimizing pain
resolve to render aid with open hearts.
Unite us in a common cause
in spite of what divides.
Help us discern and do what is our part. Amen.

In addition to each week’s post on this website, Greg Asimakoupoulos offers daily video devotionals on his YouTube channel. Here is a sample video. If you are interested in receiving these devotionals Monday through Friday, you can subscribe on Greg’s channel.

A Heartfelt Call for Action

/ Greg Asimakoupoulos
The Los Angeles fires have blazed a path in our hearts

The City of Angels is
dodging Hell’s flames.
This inferno has singed
fleeing wings.
Angelinos are weary
of winds from the east
and the smoke that makes
weeping eyes sting.

In the crises of others,
in the losses they face,
we are given a chance to respond
to the pain and the heartache,
to the grief and despair
and the loss of rare treasures now gone.

Midst the ash and the embers,
So Cal looks for help
from its neighboring states far and wide.
Are you willing to give?
Are you willing to serve?
Let the love in your heart be your guide.

In addition to each week’s post on this website, Greg Asimakoupoulos offers daily video devotionals on his YouTube channel. Here is a sample video. If you are interested in receiving these devotionals Monday through Friday, you can subscribe on Greg’s channel.

A Man Called Otto (Revisited)

/ Greg Asimakoupoulos
It’s an unforgettable film with a timeless message

If your first name is Otto,
if the world thinks you’re strange,
can you hope for redemption?
Can your selfish ways change?

Can the losses you’ve suffered
create space in your heart
for the lost and the lonely
who are God’s work of art?

Though your life’s not worth living
(or so it may seem),
can you find renewed purpose
in a dying friend’s dream?

Can a cause to believe in
find you reborn within
though your past has been littered
by anger and sin?

Can your first love be kindled
though you grieve for what’s gone?
Can God’s grace and forgiveness
find you singing a song?

While your days may be numbered
and the end is at hand,
can you serve where you’re needed
as the Good Lord has planned?

That’s my prayer for you, Otto.
That you live while you can.
That you seize what you’re given
and die a loved man.

View a trailer of A Man Called Otto here:

With Thoughts of My Dad

/ Greg Asimakoupoulos
From the time I was three I wanted to be like my dad

When I sit at my keyboard,
the sick are consoled.
Those troubled in spirit
are suddenly whole.

The grieving, encouraged.
The worried, relieved.
When I type “in the Spirit,”
God’s will is achieved.

If I asked how I learned how
to uplift the sad,
I know what to answer.
I credit my dad.

You modeled the comfort
the Scripture affords
when you translate God’s truth
into everyday words.

I miss you, Pop!

** I wrote this wee verse (based on the accompanying photo) for my pastor-dad as my Fathers’ Day greeting in 1999. The photo pictures me as a three-year-old sitting at my dad’s manual Royal typewriter in his church office in 1955. My dad passed away on November 4, 2008 at the age of eighty-two.