Dear God, let me please live in this day only. I fear tomorrow and regret yesterday. Let these demons float away from me; fictions. Today is what is before me.

If today is all the opportunity I have to live, Lord, then let me meet it fully. Let me leave nothing undone, for tomorrow will never come. I will always have only today.

Let me live as if I would die today. How will I account for this day to you, O Lord? Will I have squandered it, wasted hours on myself? Or will I offer each moment as a testimony of your love? Will I be able to say others were helped by my actions? Let it be so.

(Letter #1206)

Dear God, consumed with thoughts of self, my world narrows down to a slit. I see all events through the lens of self, which presents just one color. How do things affect me? This is the only thought this way of thinking allows. So narrow.

Lord, break the chains that imprison me in my incessant self-regard. Let me think in a new direction. Let me serve you, serve others. Let me deny self, grind self down to a nub, always place myself last.

Lord, I do not believe you placed me on this earth simply to survive nor even to thrive alone. I am here to serve a purpose, to benefit others. Let me abandon my narrow, inward aims and instead set about doing your will.

Let me give, give, give – until I run out of energy and resources and then let me give again and yet again. Let me go long past where I feel safe. More, let me give more.

You fill me, you buoy me, you make me soar and find miraculous fonts of energy to bring light to all. Doing your will, I never exhaust your supply.

(Letter #1205)

Dear God, let me circulate among my fellows today, bringing news of your love to all comers. Let me welcome all.

Let me follow where you lead without question. My pathways are so worn that I make new turnings only with difficulty. These well-worn roads offer safety — yet who new do I encounter in such familiar settings? When you whisper to step sideways, to walk where no road yet exists, let me have courage to listen and do.

Walking in such new fields, when I encounter others let me not shrink from them but approach. Let me greet all, let me be warm and hospitable. Let them wonder at the kindness they receive.

Let me pass along the great tidings that you love all. Your love, a warm beam, quickens us. Some know why our hearts beat faster; others are mystified. Let me share the discovery I have made, of you living within my beating heart.

(Letter #1204)

Dear God, I am just a small stream of water, Lord. A slow flow along a grassy field. Barely enough to slake the thirst of even the smallest creatures. Passers by step over me with ease, as if I were not there.

Lord, let me join a larger stream, and then one yet larger, as I flow to you in a mighty river. A small part of a great flood.

For now I am a small, trickling spring. Let me feel no need to demonstrate potential, or be recognized as anything more. Which drops support the barges in the river? Which wash away the peers? We all do, yet none can be pointed to.

Today, Lord, let me work quietly, anonymously. Let me trickle along, though none suspect the river I will later join.

(Letter #1203)

Dear God, let me see my tasks and troubles rightly. I view your power as a means to my own ends – as a supply for me to draw upon in expending efforts towards my own will, or to aid me in dealing with setbacks and problems. What a misuse of your grace! You provide such wealth, and I squander it on trivialities.

Lord, let me rest and hear your will for me. What I am to do, you will provide for. My weariness is not to be endured – but is instead a sign that I have fallen away from you. You pour energy through my body when I am in pursuit of your divine purposes.

Weariness and trials confer on me no special distinction. Fatigue is no mark of dilligence. I am no more virtuous than the next.

Lord, my Lord, use me today. Direct my actions as you would. Let me abandon myself to this, holding nothing back, no reserve just in case. Your supply perfectly matches need. Let me trust this is so.

(Letter #1202)

Dear God, strike love into my heart, even those parts that hold resentment and anger. Where I am frustrated, transform it into love. Where I am beleaguered, transform. This swirl of attitudes – correct it and make me wholeheartedly a being of love.

Guide, Lord, my hands, my feet, my tongue. Let me do your will, go where you would have me be, say what you would have me say. Align these things, make me shine. Let me be single.

I dwell on so much that vexes me. Under scrutiny it becomes so small – let me see this even when under the thrall of emotion. Let me meet conflict and contention with love.

(Letter #1201)

Dear God, let me expend right effort today. You call me to act – let me do so according to your will.

Left on my own, I drift so far from you. I seek out idle times, and then alternately become a frenzy of activity.

Idleness dulls me; panicked activity distracts me.

Lord, let me not confuse idleness with stillness, nor activity with industry. When I am still, I can clearly receive your dictates. When acting with industry, your power flows through me.

Lord, my prayer: let me bend all my listening and acting toward your will. Let me hear, and do.

(Letter #1200)

Dear God, grant me guidance. Let me know the way to go, what to do, how to behave. Let me know this by intuition, beyond words. I deploy these words as a veil, hiding you from me and me from the world. Always talking, speaking,

Lord, let me not jabber away. Touch my heart directly. Let my actions shout your love to the countryside. Let me silently rise from this place, go where you would have me go, and do as you direct me to do.

Let me act, Lord, not speak. Let me feel your commands move me. Thy will be done.

(Letter #1199)

Dear God, let me be fully obedient to your dictates. Let me hold nothing back, neither in my actions nor in the listening for your direction. If I do not hear your guidance it is my hearing that must be improved. Let me listen and listen harder.

Your commands, Lord, are mysteries. Why this action? Why not another? These questions arise out of my own twisted thinking. I am second-guessing. I am evaluating you, O Lord. The height of arrogant folly.

God, let me believe what I hear and let me so act. Your instructions are simple and instead of obedience I meet them with resistance and disbelief. Let me be your silent instruments today, Lord, doing your bidding.

I seek to spread the joy that comes from your perfect love, yet I pollute your message through doubt and obstinacy. How can I pass on what I do not embrace? Let me uphold your every command, without thought of self.

(Letter #1198)

Dear God, my mind is so unruly, leaping from thought to thought. So, too, is my will. Leaping. I have so many motivations and intentions, the one cascading upon the other, endlessly.

My thoughts, O Lord, are a busy city square. How can such chaos be brought to heel? I am powerless in the face of this constant babble of selfishness and self-seeking.

God, order my thinking. Simplify my inner life. Crowd out the thoughts of self, let them slip to the periphery, let them become no more than roaming dogs at the edge of the encampment. Keep them at bay. Let them, indeed, slip away to find others to vex. Leave in their wake, O Lord, a placid clearing and a safe sleeping ground.

Leave behind a quiet and simpler will, obedient and tamed.

(Letter #1197)