I once heard that a GCSE student got it wrong on his history paper by saying, “Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with his 100 foot clipper.”

In fact, he was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and in 1581 Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for this accomplishment.

I wonder whether he would have had the vision and courage, without the faith to pray like this…

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have 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 wider 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 into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.