Dear God, I am so quick to see my life as filled with troubles. Small amounts of disarray are seen as chaos, brief periods of waiting for needed resources are seen as denial, honest criticisms from others are seen as failure. The story I tell myself is that I face trials and opposition, and that I must battle and endure to survive.

Lord, let me shrug off these attitudes like an old cloak. If I look honestly at the course of my life, none of these troubles has ever been as real nor as momentous as I feared and perceived. Disarray has become healing order, waiting has ended, criticisms forgotten and corrected.

Lord, let me dismiss these things I too easily see as calamity. Let me turn my attention to finding the willingness to seek and do your will.

Let me walk slowly, deliberately, joyfully through my day, untouched and cheerful. The mud of the world cannot touch me.

(Letter #994)

Dear God, I alter or withhold action so often as a result of my emotions. I feel one way, so I act. I feel another way, so I change. What you call me to do, my obligations, persist. Yet I approach them chaotically, all at the whims of my emotions.

Lord, let me have steadfast equanimity. Let me glow with your light, and bring this even, positive disposition to my every task. No matter the calling, let me thankfully immerse myself in the doing.

I have such a changeable nature. Steady me. Govern me. Suck the drama out of my life, the chaos, the disorder. Place my feet where they belong, and guide me to set them each one before the other, steady and carefully.

Grant me a deliberate nature today, let me be an oasis of peace. Let me bring this peace to all today.

(Letter #993)

Dear God, I sit quietly, shut away from the world, in communion with you. My secret friend, sitting with me while I plan for the day. You strengthen me and soothe me.

Yet, when I get up from here, you seem to disappear like a mist. The peace I knew just moments ago flees me, and I once again face a world of challenge and difficulty, feeling alone.

Lord, my secret friend, let me take you with me. Indeed, it is not you who leaves, but it is I who do not properly see. You are with me all along, I only imagine you to be gone. You are my true friend and will not abandon me.

Dear, sweet Lord, I am grateful that you have grown into this friend. It has only come through persistent prayer, over time. This is a relationship built bit by bit. Thank you for slowly revealing yourself to me.

Let me glide through this world aware of your love, even when assailed by the trivial enemies that litter the day. Thank you.

(Letter #992)

Dear God, I mouth the words of love and service, but my inner heart is too often empty. I look out upon the world with a numb, calculating soul. I look for advantage in every event. I assess my ranking among my fellows. I look for evidence of eminence.

Lord, let these self-seeking motives slip away. Let me look upon events with one thing in mind: Where is the opportunity to be of help? Let me see these as your true gifts – not a peaceful feeling, not elation, not even health.

No, your gifts are the myriad opportunities you present to me to be useful and responsible in my day to day life, to be helpful to my fellows. My fellows, the very ones my misshapen heart seeks to surpass. Let me be just one among a number of equally ordinary souls.

(Letter #991)

Dear God, I am thinking about myself this morning. What will I do, what will become of me, what do I wish for? Self, self, self. Even in looking upon the world, I test it against how it will affect me.

Dear Lord, burn this away. Let me be empty, transparent, clear. Let me have no designs on how events unfold, but instead wait expectantly for your instructions of how to react. Let all my actions be directed by love.

Lord, occupy my thoughts. Crowd out my self-seeking and self-regard. Direct my attention where it ought to be. Let me love and help others today.

Grant me knowledge of your will for me, and the willingness and power to carry it out.

(Letter #990)

Dear God, diminish my pride. It is at the root of so many of my deeds and attitudes. Even when taking positive actions, doing good works, I too often do so for prideful motives. I seek accolades, recognition, adulation. When they come to me I expand in satisfaction; when they do not I become resentful and bitter.

Lord, let this defect in character be removed. Let me be willing that you reach deep into me and pull it up and out, root and stem, like a creeping weed. Leave me empty, clean, orderly in my thinking and attitudes.

Let me act today from motives I would gladly display to all. Make me transparent, an open book. Make me light.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #989)

Dear God, the more I believe, the more I feel how inadequate is my amount of faith. I can and ought to trust you more, and then yet more.

I fear a challenging day. Why? When have you ever abandoned me? Yet I anxiously don my armor, as if you have never supported me in the past.

I worry about financial security and my family’s well-being. Why? When have you ever delivered more than I can bear? Yet I furtively dart around, looking for acorns to hide for the winter, as if from this point forward all depended upon me.

Lord, you have lovingly set me down in a world of abundance, taken care of my every need – yet I see none of it. I fear depletion and hardship.

Please give me faith. Grant me humility to recognize your gifts when I see them, humility to accept that I am not the motive force in the world.

Let me approach the day with a calm enthusiasm to experience what will unfold. What gifts will you deliver to me today? What opportunities to help? To grow?

Let me leave my shriveled, selfish, lower self behind, shut away in my room. Let me walk as a higher being of light, as your offspring and agent. Maybe I will be the only person of faith that someone will meet today. Let me represent you well.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #988)

Dear God, I torment myself with the stories I tell myself about the events of the day. Every occurrence means something, signifies something, and as the central character, it all affects me. This is a recipe for desperation. In this drama of my own design I am constantly beset by forces, required to overcome difficulties, to lead into frightening places.

But my stories are fictions. The day unfolds and I respond – the sun does not rise upon me like a stage curtain over the star, nor over the villain.

Lord, let me view this world as neutral and my role as neither exalted nor despicable. Let me pursue one aim: to improve the conditions around me, that others may benefit.

Let the stories I tell myself dissipate like mist under your sunshine. Leave behind my strong, calm, loving, best self. Let this person stride with purpose through the day you have arrayed. Let me do your will.

(Letter 987)

Dear God, facing a day filled with tasks and obligations, I become anxious. I fear I have not prepared sufficiently, and that this will become apparent. My work will be judged wanting, and I will lose status in the eyes of my colleagues and superiors.

While the particular contours of this fear feel unique to this moment, this set of circumstances, it is in fact an archetype. This is the pattern of almost all my fear – it gets down to apprehension over my status. I face this fear on a regular basis. This new example I face today is nothing out of the ordinary.

I am bound to this fear by my sense of self, my insistence on perceiving myself as the center of all things. Lord, let my attitude grow. Let my understanding grow. Let me see my feelings for what they are: reflections of my spiritual shortcomings.

The fearless path forward is for me to ask how I can best be of service today. How can I be useful? What task may I perform for you, O Lord? Yet instead I concern myself with rankings. Please, Lord, correct my thinking today.

(Letter #986)

Dear God, even in the face of daily trials, how can I rejoice in you? Lord, regardless of what happens in my temporal life, whatever challenges I face today, now, let me look to you for guidance. Let me depend on you.

Instead, I too often await the future. I look to a day where my troubles will be eased. Tomorrow. Tomorrow’s tomorrow. Yet I live today and you have presented me with a gift, today, of love. Let me accept the present moment as your grace. I do not have to bear yesterday’s afflictions nor tomorrow’s woes. Today is entirely in my hands.

Today, let me bring a full measure of energy to all my tasks. Let me not coast idly but remember that this is the only day I will have. Tomorrow is a vapor so whatever relief I hope for in future is already fiction. Today is real, and here is where you call me to live. Let me live.

God, let me do your will. Today.

(Letter #985)