Dear God, you invite me; I need but move my feet your way. Your pathways are broad and easy. Why do I take instead the stony, narrow way? Why do I turn off into brambles and up switchbacks? I soon find myself in thickets with brackish ponds. Perversely, it is only with reluctance that I turn back to rejoin your easy roadway.

Lord. I need but decide to walk with you and you then walk with me in return. If I draw near you reveal yourself. You knock and I need only answer to see you. All this ease, yet I make my own way hard. Save me from my self-made difficulties.

My troubles? I seek them and so they appear. My worries? I invite them as surely as the dawn comes. I awaken and don my own shackles, then when I retire I whimper at my own imprisonment.

This iron around me is gauze.

Lord, let me blink open my eyes and remake this daily decision to follow your easy way. Let me leave these troubles in a heap by the roadside, and walk gently with you in company.

(Letter #1435)

Dear God, let me eagerly run toward the dullest tasks. If I am to be your servant then I must serve. Let me polish the woodwork in your mansions, clean the floors, tidy the rooms, repair the fences.

When the day I face fills with such vexing work, when instead I wish for glory and standing – let me remember the dignity of the servant.

Lord, as you come to me in worldly form, let me approach this day and the people within it as a servant. Your servant.

I serve you.

(Letter #1434)

Dear God, let me seek your guidance. I say I do so, but in truth I more often seek a sense of confirmation. I look for a sign that what I want to do already is correct. That I will get my way.

Lord, take my will. Let me be more honestly open to be moved by you.

Let me be as a small child, guided, willing, and curious. Let me be eager to please you, dear Lord.

(Letter #1433)

Dear God, let me catalog my gratitude. Let your light shine upon my worry and dispel it like the mist it is. Where are the problems I think I have? If I truly look, they cannot be found.

I so easily confuse trouble with worry. If I awaken with anxiety, I think myself troubled, beset by problems. But my worries are over things that may happen in the future. Here and now, no problems touch me. I am alive, and so have all I need.

Thy will be done today, dear Lord.

(Letter #1432)