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)