Letter 4524

The sun rises ever later; where I used to sit in early sun, my room is now dark as I sit in devotion. Into this room I allow only a small lamp, and I keep the light low.

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Just two months ago the lamp was not necessary, bright sun spilling through the window. Why now am I so careful with the light, preferring gloom? Could I not choose bright light? The dark setting brings with it the temptation to fall asleep rather than seek you, Lord.

Let me devote myself to you at noon as equally as dawn.

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Consider:

Can I seek you, no matter the setting?

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Reading:

❖ “The eternal stars shine out again, so soon as it is dark enough.” — Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present

❖ “I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light.” — Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

❖ “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” — Psalm 139:12 (KJV)

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Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4523

I pray to you each morn, Lord, and this one is no different. The worry of coming days weighs on me, the worry of coming moments.

Am I then to recite a litany of requests? My prayers then become long lists.

Indeed the words do not come, Lord. I seek you, I seek your will, I seek relief. Yet I cannot articulate from what. Will you be deaf to me if all I can muster is a groan?

I draw near to you, you draw near to me. That in itself is relief. We need no words for there to be a channel between us.

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You know what I need whether I can speak it or not. “Lord, help me” is a full prayer.

Lord, help me.

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Consider:

Can I try to draw near today?

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Reading:

❖ “And prayer is more than an order of words…” — T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

❖ “The quieter you become inside, the more you will pull back a little and remove yourself from the reactive mode that you are in.” — Ram Dass

❖ “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” — Romans 8:26 (KJV)

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Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4522

The rains have stopped and dawn comes brightly. My heart holds energy and my limbs are strong.

Such newness and joy! I am ready for the world.

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Let me sing of the joy I feel, and lift up all that undergirds it for all to see. Let me fill my day with praise and song! Gratitude! How else to mark this turning point if a morning?

Let me live and speak my joy today.

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Consider:

Can I sing of my gratitude today?

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Reading:

❖ “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” — Mary Oliver, “Sometimes,” Red Bird

❖ “For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” — David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer

❖ “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” — Psalm 100:4 (KJV)

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Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4521

Walking through a garden of statues.

Old wisdom looking down on me.

One after another, over many years, were they placed here.

What do they offer?

Some look upon me sternly. Others are engaged in worlds of their own, or look into the distance.

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Perhaps it is the ancient artists with whom I am speaking. They left these figures for me and others like me. It is not the grand figures of history with whom I confer, but named and nameless ones who left behind the visible world.

Let me remember the world is not the world.

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Consider:

Can I thank those who came before me?

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Reading:

❖ “I am a part of all that I have met;” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses

❖ “We carry our history with us. We are our history.” — James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro

❖ “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…” — Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)

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Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.