Merciful Lord, forgive us for the ways we have mistaken appetite for purpose, for reaching past the people in front of us toward things that could never fill us, for taking more than we needed and calling it ambition, for feeding ourselves while others went hungry and calling it success.

We confess that we have sat at full tables and still felt empty, because we were feeding the wrong hunger. We have consumed and consumed and wondered why we were not satisfied. Today we come to the small room, stripped of performance, tired of wanting, and we ask You for what no banquet has ever provided: the kind of fullness that does not require anyone else's portion.

Fill us, Lord, with what only You can give. Make us people who build tables rather than hoard them. Teach us to receive mercy so that we might finally learn to extend it. Satisfy the deep ache in us, not with more, but with You.

Amen