Dear God, of late I have felt desperation and longing, indeed for days this has been so. This morning, you have awakened me with a feeling of wholeness. You are present with me; I feel your nearness.

I so often pray to become as a child, trusting and simple. But a child has no duties, yet I owe you devotion and service. Let me become, instead, your servant. Let me serve you through service to all those around me.

You have populated my life with opportunity to overcome all the small feelings and selfishness that bedevil me. Let me bring peace to those around me. Let me serve those around me in large ways and small. Let me sacrifice comfort and ease, as my expression of devotion and gratitude to you.

If I am truly grateful, I will not rest until there is peace around me and all are in harmony.

You have entered into my heart. I was a wretch before your coming. I was laid low, low enough to seek you. You allowed yourself to be found. Now I am whole.

Let me bring wholeness to every single person I encounter today. Let this be my aim. Let me ask myself, “How can I best serve?” Let me listen for your answer, and act.

Shine through me, Lord, upon this world.

(Letter #1,000)

Dear God, the most difficult task for me is sometimes to wait quietly. I am agitated, expectant.

All the things in my life that are not as they ought to be, all the things that I wish were different, all the challenges that face me daily – my exertions directed at these things are so often nought. Instead you call me to wait, quietly and calmly, until you improve conditions in your time and in your manner.

Lord, let me have true devotion to you. Let me rest quietly, receiving the warmth of your love.

I perceive the ineffectiveness of my actions as weakness, impotence. Yet, if I look differently, I might see that you in fact are granting me luxury. I am blessed with leisure, not afflicted with paralysis.

Let me view this day with gratitude. Let me do that which you impel me to do, no less but also no more. Let me exert my energies in finding you. Thy will be done.

(Letter #999)

Dear God, when I am in deepest pain, my prayer to you is most honest. “Lord, help me.” Anything more I might say is simply embellishment.

How, Lord, can I be equally honest with you even when I am not desperate? But instead I dress up my prayer in elaborate thoughts and words.

Lord, burn away my affectation. Burn away my self-congratulation. Burn away my pride. Leave me naked before you, a child calling for help. Let my call to you be so straightforward that the very prayer is its own answer.

Let me do your will today.

(Letter #998)

Dear God, sit with me. Be my companion. My interior life is a turmoil, even as my outer life appears placid. My mind tumbles event upon possible event; I craft great palaces in the future and like a child I kick them over with equally great imagined calamity. All false.

Sit with me. Be my companion, a fellow sitting beside me, watching the smooth waters of an indifferent lake. On the far shore, a deer grazes without fear. Nearer, a fish jumps. The sun shines.

When filled with worldly vexations, I am blind to all the serene beauty around me. Sit with me. Calm me, let me see it. Make it visible even when I am shut away in an interior room, or thronged by others with their demands.

Let me quietly feel your nearness. Let me be settled by it.

Thank you.

(Letter #997)