Dear God, my nature is to desire the spotlight, to be praised. You call me to set aside these desires, to instead to try to be helpful to others, not to seek notice. This is such a discipline, Lord. I fail at this task many times, moment to moment: I spread my own fame, I preen and try to present the best possible image, I act in the hopes of gaining status.

Lord, correct my intent, for it is on that level that I fall short. My actions may well be noble, but if I pursue good works just so I may become known for them, I am no less selfish than any other egoist.

Lord, Lord, let me have better intentions. When I help another, let it be in secret. Let my practice this day be one of anonymity.

Anonymity is spiritual, for it denies me the avenue of self-aggrandizement.

Lord, let me be your faceless and nameless worker today. Let me be the one who no one notices.

(Letter #1278)

Dear God, let my faith be simple today. Let me not build complication into the workings of the world – seeing what is not there. Let me not wonder at people’s intentions and plans, but instead look about me and see what is.

My restless mind so desires drama and story. I look for the hidden motivations of others. I imagine all sorts of intent, and I congratulate myself on my insight. More often than not I am incorrect.

Let me, Lord, remain simple and plain. Let my thoughts be simple and plain. Let me try my best to be helpful today, adding positive energy to what is already happening all around me.

In every small thing, let me ask: how can I help? Let this be my simple task today.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #1277)

Dear God, I say “trust, trust,” but how fully do I rely upon you? In truth I behave as if I alone am responsible for every outcome. This is how I think. I arrange events, I worry over results. This faith I proclaim evaporates under the day’s heat.

Lord, let me live a life today in which I wholeheartedly depend upon you. So easy to say, so difficult to enact.

Grant me progress, for I am so far from you. Let me be willing to draw nearer to you, let my worries ease, let me trust your support.

Trust, trust. Let me have it.

(Letter #1276)

Dear God, my will and desires are so changeable, like a small animal darting from point to point. One moment here, another there. Never steady.

Lord, let my will be brought into alignment with yours. You are steadfast, solid underneath the world. Let me align myself with you, let this bring steady resolve to my furtive ways.

Oh! I am so changeable, yet you remain unchanged even as the storms lash me. Let me cling to you as a rock.

Make me useful today.

(Letter #1275)

Dear God, let me do works today. Let me not simply profess faith, but let me act. How am I to know the depths of my willingness, save by demonstrations?

Test me, Lord. Make me willing, even, to be placed in the vise and pressed until breaking. I believe myself to have prepared yet, Lord, how am I to know?

You know my breaking point, dear Lord. The steel in the bridge is not weary, its efforts routine. It carries car after car, truck after truck without complaint.

Lord, the burdens you deliver to me are routine and yet, in my willfulness I resist. Each load is negligible and together they add up to great deeds — yet I see them wrongly: as trial and woe.

Lord, let me see rightly. Let me be glad of heart. These burdens are tiny, beneath notice.

Let me be willing today. Let my deeds speak of your way of life.

(Letter #1274)

Dear God, I am so flawed in my thinking, I cannot even fathom what I need. I look around me with a feeling of confusion in the face of all the calls to action that press in on me. I can scarcely keep track of all these duties. I am left, only, with a feeling of undone obligations and of a need for greater resources. My thinking races around a track that goes nowhere.

Oh, Lord, inhabit my mind, inhabit my body. Still my thoughts and slow my pounding heart.

Let my faith extend itself.

Let me cease with my lists and litanies of need. I am like a child asking for playthings – a sullen and indolent worker with a set of demands.

Let me look down at my hands and simply, quietly, without hesitation, set them to working on what is here immediately before me. Let me trust supply will be present exactly when and in the measure that the duties require. I will have what I need.

Let me not look further down the list at task after task, but do just what is right before me. Let me have confidence that the correct actions will present themselves. Let me listen and act.

(Letter #1273)

Dear God, some days hence, I will be called upon to expend great effort. I anticipate this day, a day which I cannot evade, with fear. Worrying about this future day robs me here, now, in this day.

Today spreads before me, a banquet of adventure and novelty, yet I barely see it. I am transfixed on some later time.

Who knows what is to happen tomorrow? That day will arrive of its own accord.

Lord, let me look to this day as your servant. Let me listen for your commands today – let me not be distracted by trying to live in the future. That way lies madness.

Lord, thy will be done. Let me act as you impel, let me respond as you call, let me walk forth as you beckon.

(Letter #1272)

Readers: Thank you for your patience with my hiatus. Over the past month I have continued to write these letters every morning, only I have not published them. I now will resume doing so. —B

Dear God, let me seek simplicity today. Let me, personally, seek to be simple. Let me not add burden and complication to what is already straightforward and plain. You call me to love others, to act in love towards all.

In all my actions today, Lord, let me move slowly and directly. Let me be driven forward by love – respecting and honoring the dignity of all who surround me. Let me recognize even anonymous passers-by as equally human as my closest kin.

And in my actions, let me seek to do your will. It is simple enough thing to try: let me try.

(Letter #1271)