We sit together, murmuring to one another, side by side.

I share with you my worries for the day, struggling to name gratitude.

You share with me the pathway to ease.

I have forgotten before you are done speaking. Later, I will strain to recall the way.

O memory! Stay with me on the march, murmur to me at noon.

(Letter #2,202)

The day’s pathway has been laid out by you. My footfalls will be safe, my walking protected.

In the lonely dawn hours, I fear my journey. Why do I worry when I know the path is set? Do I fret that the scenery will disappoint?

Lord, let me accept the hedge of protection you have placed upon us. Let me therefore fear not the orders of the day.

(Letter #2,201)

I await greater faith, that I may pray better. O mistaken thought, it is prayer that brings faith.

You shower me with obligation and duty, from which I recoil in sloth. I await greater industry, insensible that it is wrought out of obligations met, duties upheld.

Are you testing me or training me, dear Lord?

They are the same thing.

(Letter #2,200)

If I am to be a channel, carrying your love and power to my fellows, let me remain clear. Let me not be miserly, that this pipeline may not corrode nor become blocked through disuse.

Your love for me is unlimited by the physical restrictions of this world. How dare I close the spigot?

I live by an Alpine lake, why fear I an empty jug?

Lord, let me onpass what you so generously bestow upon me – peace and ease.

(Letter #2,199)

Let me participate in these prayers I mouth to you.

Let these pleas live within my heart. Let me do more than recite from a script.

I have collapsed in a heap. I cry out for help: a true prayer.

I cower behind a barricade. I beg for rescue: a true prayer.

Let me find no pride in piety, Lord. You are the rescuer and lighthouse, not the jailer. Thy will be done.

(Letter #2.198)

Stuck, the solution came to me: walk around this obstacle.

Hungry, I found nourishment in an unexpected place.

Cold, a fellow gave me their blanket.

Lord, these miracles fill my day. Moment by moment, need by need, you sustain me.

Why wait I for dramatic rescue when you yet guide my feet toward safety?

Let me see what is already here.

(Letter #2,197)

Let me overcome self today.

Let me turn away from my own advantage.

Let me duck away from the spotlight.

Let me deplete my reservoirs, for they are filled with treasure borrowed from your grace. I am not my own.

Let me overcome self.

(Letter #2,196)

I am as strong equally today as yesterday; wherefore comes this feeling of weakness? Yesterday I scaled a wall, today I cower before the dawn.

Lord, rule my attitude. Make me willing to stand erect even when I would stoop.

I wish to hide from view, yet the podium is waiting. You have arranged this table for me, let me accept it.

(Letter #2,195)

I wish for a map, but even that would not suffice. Can a map show me whom I will greet?

I carry your treasure with me; you have entrusted me to distribute it.

Let me be ready, with good will, for all encounters today.

(Letter #2,194)

I kneel in the morning gloom, and ask for knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry it out. I am frightened of the day’s journey and want comfort.

How will I know when the power has come to me? Is it strength you give? I am is weary at the start of a successful day as I am before a day of failure.

Trembling, step-by-step, I will walk while you clear stones from the way.

Improve my faith, Lord, that my meager resources will be enough. Your providence is its own form of strength.

(Letter #2,193)