We know from Scripture that God doesn't simply want our service. "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," says Jesus, quoting Hosea 6:6. He doesn't care for our religious rituals in and of themselves.

He tells us what he wants instead: mercy. Steadfast love. Bleeding hearts, both toward him and toward our neighbor. Read Scripture for any length of time, Old or New Testament, and you'll see that this is what God has always desired of his people.

What I like so much about this poem from George Herbert is that he knows this desire in God's heart, and he pleads for him to act on it. In place of wrath and rod, he asks for God to "discipline" him with love. Gentle love, he tells God, will release his own heart to love him in return.

He seems to have learned the principle of 1 John 4:19 by experience: "We love because he first loved us."

Discipline

Throw away thy rod,
Throw away thy wrath:
                         O my God,
Take the gentle path.

For my heart's desire
unto thine is bent:
                         I aspire
To a full consent.

Not a word or look
I affect to own,
                         But by book,
And thy book alone.

Though I fail, I weep:
Though I halt in pace,
                         Yet I creep
To the throne of grace.

Then let wrath remove;
Love will do the deed:
                         For with love
Stony hearts will bleed.

Love is swift of foot;
Love's a man of war,
                         And can shoot,
And can hit from far.

Who can scape his bow?
That which wrought on thee,
                         Brought thee low,
Needs must work on me.

Throw away thy rod;
Though man frailties hath,
                         Thou art God:
Throw away thy wrath.

(George Herbert: The Complete English Works, 174-175)