Achieve more.

The myriad opportunities to act unfold before me like forking paths and tangled branches. What shall I do next? How many sticks can I carry at once?

If I carry them all, yet walk just a few steps, have I shifted the pile?

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Lord, let me act in measured ways today, listening for your voice. Let me do less, and achieve more of your will.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I follow the path of doing less?

Reading:

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” — Socrates

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“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” — Josh Billings

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“Better is a handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.” — Ecclesiastes 4:6 KJV

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Well-worn and plain.

I seek, I seek you, as if the way is hidden and I must search.

Walking in the meadow, the way is clear and my feet find it without effort. Other creatures have trod this route.

Crossing a stream, the ford is plain to see.

When I visit my neighbor, they are on the porch, not hiding in the wood shed.

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The path to you, Lord, is laid out before me, plain to see. Why do I miss it? Is it willful blindness?

Let me walk toward you today.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I content myself with the obvious path?

Reading:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust

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“It is not the path which is the difficulty; rather, it is the difficulty which is the path.” — Søren Kierkegaard

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“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.” — Isaiah 30:21 KJV

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Still there.

Mist on the land.

I look out from my dwelling and cannot see the trees on the far edge of the meadow. My view fades to distant gray. I feel alone on an island.

If I set out towards town, will the path still be there?

The mist did not erase the world. It cloaked it.

❖

Though unseen, Lord, let me trust that what you showed me yesterday is still present today.

The path is there if I walk it.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I trust what I learned yesterday, today?

Reading:

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

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“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” — 2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

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Removing what blocks.

The sculptor begins with a block, and removes what is not beauty.

The gardener enters their plot, and removes the weeds that impede growth.

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The day is filled with choice, Lord, let me remove what blocks me from you. Let me tend to my life, that it may become simple and grow in beauty.

Finally, Lord, let me be willing that you work on me in the same way. My life, my days, are unshaped clay. Make of me what you would will.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Am I ready to be remade?

Reading:

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” — Michelangelo

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“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” — William Morris

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“But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” — Isaiah 64:8 KJV

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