Dear God, I become so panicked when I face restriction. I perceive limitation as trouble that must be surmounted. Yet when limitation is removed, when I have complete ease and freedom, I squander the opportunity on indolence and selfish thought.

Lord, let me eagerly welcome restriction. Limitation begets obedience and orderly habits – and these bring me nearer to you. Let my efforts to live an orderly life clear a channel, Lord, a channel between me and you. The more I efface my will the more yours can become my focus.

Bind me, Lord. Set me to work.

(Letter #1217)

Dear God, still me, and enter my thinking. Spread throughout my mind, slow everything to a crawl. I am so agitated and changeable. Good news elates me; difficulties send me into a tailspin. My inner life whips back and forth, I am blown like a paper cup into the road.

Lord, calm me. Grant me good cheer. I am so quick to become resentful. Let me view positive interactions as my duty, a gift, a demonstration of gratitude for the life you grant.

O Lord, remake my thought life. Take away my agitation, take away all speed from my thinking. I crave the feeling of quickly jumping from idea to idea. It brings such a sense of elation and power – and thereby becomes pride. Slow my thinking, focus my mind, calm these waters.

Let me slowly, gently, move through the day both in body and mind.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #1216)

Dear God, I so often think I know the right course of action. Where a solution is needed, I believe myself to have it. If all followed my advice then the outcomes would be as hoped-for.

Folly.

Lord, pierce through this way of thinking. These things that I perceive need fixing – let me place it all at your feet. Work your will on these conditions. Let me set about the more difficult task – the discipline – of acceptance.

Lord, let me act only when your guidance is clear and compelling. In all other areas, let me allow your plans to unfold. Let me devote my energies to pouring love into all things. Thy will be done

(Letter #1215)

Dear God, let me recede. Let me place others in the forefront.

Too often I congratulate myself for refraining from acting as the center of attention – yet in truth I am slyly controlling my fellows, arranging things to burnish my reputation. I sow confusion and discord in ways large and small, even without intention.

From the margins, let me not seek to manipulate events.

Grant me equanimity, O Lord! Grant me acceptance. If I am to leave an impression, let it be one of harmony. Let me listen for your guidance and act upon it.

(Letter #1214)

Dear God, the troubles I face, the difficulties I encounter, the woes I bear – all imagined. I embellish their magnitude, yea, their very existence is fiction. What trials are mine? In truth, I am fearful that I will not get what I want – this is the sum of it.

Lord, grant me a changed attitude today. Let me see clearly how all is well. I have too long sulked in din shadows. Today let me stand erect under the sunlight and feel its warmth on my skin. The sun has been here all along.

All my fears could come true and yet all would still be well. Wherefore, then, do I worry? Let me have tranquility in my step.

(Letter #1213)

Dear God, let me discover ease in even the most difficult trial you send me. Amidst effort and exertion, let me look for the spots of rest. They exist, within my grasp – you promise me relief and I need not wait for it. Let me see it here right before me.

Let me be ease for others. The one who is struggling, the one in pain, the one confused – let me bring relief into their lives. Let me be a living oasis in this desert. Let me spread the recognition that the places of the desert and the oasis are inverted – you have constructed the world such that trial is momentary, while grace is all around. And yet we act as if the world were comprised of a series of difficulties. Let me share with my fellows how to see the world.

When I see trials as gifts, I then will want more. Bring them, more! Each one given by you.

Lord, let me be eager to be tested today.

(Letter #1212)

Dear God, O! I turn too inward. I curl myself around myself. I lick my wounds. I attend to my feelings, I give mind to my emotions. I nurse my grudges. Each step I take through the day, I assess: How do I feel? How do I feel about it? What will I do to improve how I feel?

Lord. Sweep aside the pieces of this trivial game of self-absorption. Wipe clean my day. Leave me quivering, raw, naked facing the storm. Maybe then I might step outside of myself and begin to do your work without all this useless self-monitoring, self-talk, self-thinking.

Lord, you set me before bare ground and hand me a shovel — I sit mulishly rather than start digging. I believe you have ordered a ditch, a task below my station. Yet perhaps you instead are urging me to unearth a treasure. All that stops me is my pride.

Lord. Lord. Rescue me from thinking about myself. Create urgency all around me, that I might wholeheartedly act, rather than sulk and shirk.

Let me be your being today, not myself.

(Letter #1211)

Dear God, will I recognize your gifts today?

I see my world as filled with hardship and trial – and so your gifts must surely involve some sort of relief. So my thinking goes. But perhaps the trials themselves are the gifts. What are you making me ready for, O Lord? What is the lesson you are giving to me?

I see everything through the lens of self. Distorted. Inverted. Take off these blinders, Lord, and let me see clearly. Let me look around and see these gifts glowing with warmth, your secret treasures heaped right here next to me.

I was tripping over piles of jewels, cursing the debris. Let me recognize your love when it is plain, there in front of me. Close enough to touch. Those things I pine for – let me see where and how they already have come to me.

(Letter #1210)

Dear God, I am so distracted and tangled up in self. My thinking is preoccupied with how things will affect me. I dwell on fears of what may come, planned activities, hoped-for outcomes. Barely aware of the nature of my thinking – I am driven forward by reaction and instinct. in this way, I am asleep.

Lord, let me step out of my self. Let me see my thought-life clearly. Grant me a pause between stimulus and response. In this pause, enter my thinking and point my gaze in the proper direction. Point me toward others and away from self.

Today, Lord, let me be an anonymous custodian of your mansion. Let me be invisible, let me be content with my small and detailed task. Let me seek no recognition. Let me polish the fixtures and clear the paths for all those who walk through your hallways.

(Letter #1209)

Dear God, I expend such effort in trying to discern and follow your will – as if there were some difference between mine and yours. Yet you are the prime cause, you move all of the earth. What happens is always your will.

My fear, my shortcomings, my idleness – these are all your will as equally as are my virtuous doings. You challenge me to discern your love for me even in crisis and difficulty.

And so I am left with a simple task. Find you in all things, thank you in all things.

Lord, let me have gratitude in each moment, yea, down to the seconds within each hour. Every circumstance was designed and delivered by you just for me, as were my reactions. Even when I misbehave and bring upon myself trial and calamity – it was you who designed it so, all that I may learn something

Let me learn the lessons you teach, O Lord. Let me give thanks for everything.

(Letter #1208)