Dear God, worry and fear are so often with me. I awaken frightened of all I face in the day. How many times before this morning have I felt same, and returned to you to ease my apprehension? If I focus on your will for me, the worry dissipates for a moment here, a moment there.

I would have thought the lesson would be learnt by now – yet worry still is my unwelcome companion.

Is this your will for me? How can I see this affliction as a gift? Let me view my inner life in such a way that I become grateful. How, Lord, can I become grateful for my fears?

The repetition of your lessons, at least, brings with it improvement. I awaken with trivial worries and I know immediately to redouble my efforts to seek your will. Perhaps this is preparation for greater tests to come. Or perhaps it is meant to show the way to others. Perhaps, finally, it is to keep me close to you.

Lord, please reveal to me your will today, and let me set about to act upon it. Let me help others today.

(Letter #1022)

Dear God, let my intentions today be single. Let me seek solely to do your will.

All my plans, my stratagems, my worries, my contingencies – let these all fall away. Let me see your presence around every corner, and ask in any situation: what would you have me do, O Lord?

I build castles in my mind as easily as I do nightmares but in all cases I rule these imaginary landscapes. My fantasies are all bereft of you and I am alone in them. Alone to rise or fall. What an impoverished inner life. Lift me away.

Lord, today, let me know you are with me.

(Letter #1021)

Dear God, my inner life is littered with shortcomings. My thoughts, even when not overtly selfish, are almost always self-absorbed. So rarely do I honestly think of others’ welfare, even when in the midst of taking helpful actions.

Lord, let me direct energy toward those around me. Fill me with love, let it blot out the selfishness that preoccupies my inner life. Let me singly think about spreading your love to others.

(Letter #1020)

Dear God, let me see all the treasure you have heaped around me. I walk through your palace, showered in beneficence, yet I see myself struggle with limitation.

My selfish, grasping core tells me it is not enough. Not enough praise, not enough notice, not enough security, not enough resources, not enough love. Like I am sullenly plodding along a dark pathway, grumbling that I must toil, when all around me is beauty if I will but raise my eyes to see.

Lord, let me become glad. Let me live the ecstasy of discovering I am already loved just as I am, I have enough just as I am. I am your child, chosen, as are my brothers and sisters all around me.

These piles of treasure I pick my way through are comprised of the love and wherewithal you deliver every day.

I have yet to ever lack what I need to fulfill the tasks you set me. Within me is always already everything I require. Let me see it.

(Letter #1019)

Dear God, already, at this early hour, I am consumed by thoughts of self. What will I do today, where will I go today, how will I enact my will today? These are the questions that transfix me. All self-seeking.

Lord, my nature is to be self-driven, my own alpha and omega. How shall I crack open this enclosing shell and lay myself bare to the world you arrange around me?

Shatter my walls, O Lord, and make me vulnerable to every wind. Let me abandon safety. Let me do so willingly, eagerly, enthusiastically. Let me lean forward into the storm, counting each struggling step as an act of devotion.

Let me run at the giants you call me to battle, the famine you call me to husband, the drought you call me to endure. All of it for you.

Too often, I run from the challenges you offer. I hunker down. I present my armor and protect my soft parts. Let me stand, exposed.

The wind blows around me, let me feel it fill my sails. I fear, so I hide. Lord, hold my hand while I emerge.

(Letter #1018)

Dear God, increase my faith. For too long I have held on by my fingernails, believing my well-being entirely dependent on my actions.

May I let go, O Lord. Let me fall into your arms and feel you carry me from place to place. Let my dependence on you increase day by day such that yesterday‘s trust must today appear as nothing.

Let me, Lord, glide from task to task with the knowledge that at each station I will find, laid before me, all I need. Let me trust you, my friend and captain.

God, let my unbelief shrink. Let me recognize my tenacious efforts at survival for what they are: mistrust. Let belief and trust balloon and crowd out my doubting self.

You offer ease, O Lord. Why do I so rarely accept it?

Let me gladly receive your gift today.

(Letter #1017)

Dear God, let me be a carrier of your word today. Let others see your way of life and become interested in adopting it. Let joy spread, and let me be one avenue through which it does so.

If I am to do this, it must be through works, not through exhortation or song. Lord, let me live my existence like a beacon. Let my deeds demonstrate what it means to live as you would have us live.

Lord, you do not require heroics from me. You only ask that I seek and do your will.

In all the circumstances I encounter today, all the people I interact with, let me ask continually how I might best serve you. Let me not be one who proclaims – but one who quietly acts. Let me be diligent in fulfilling your will. Let these quiet works be my testimony.

(Letter #1016)

Dear God, I allow myself frequently to pine for change, for my circumstances to shift. I have hopes and dreams that I imagine will produce fulfillment. What, Lord, would be my reaction if these things came to pass? Would they fulfill me?

In truth, what I wish for so often turns to ashes in my mouth once it arrives, and I look back at my earlier life with longing.

Lord, grant me awareness of how you satisfy all my needs in the here and now. It is not tomorrow that you will save me, it is today that you are already doing so.

Lord, take away this childish insistence on tomorrow’s gifts. This longing. Let me have gratitude here, now. I am content and do not even admit it to myself.

Let me live as a contented person today.

(Letter #1015)

Dear God, I anticipate future days, and steel myself to withstand forthcoming trials. I prepare. I plan.

Events rarely unfold as I predict, and yet, Lord, you provide the words and deeds when and as they are necessary. You guide me today, and did so when yesterday was today as well. You will support me tomorrow.

Lord, let me not be so disloyal as to believe myself the architect of my actions. In truth I am always responding to conditions that you set. Let me have acceptance of what unfolds around me, and live in this day only.

What is my obligation in this moment? It is always the same: to do your will. The next right thing.

Let me be willing to live this life, today, without one foot in tomorrow. Let me not be distracted by maybes and possiblies, but stay and rejoice in the real and actual. Today is the reality you have given. Let me be with you in it.

(Letter #1014)

Dear God, today, let me pass on to others the good news. You watch over the world, we are safe in your care. You miraculously grant us the ability to choose, to act. All of our problems are of our own making, they arise from how we behave towards one another.

Lord, let me act with good cheer to those around me today. Let me look around me at the events of the day, without complaint. Even in the midst of the dullest episode, or of the most vexing privation, let me seek the opportunity to convey the good news to my fellows.

Lord, you keep me safe – we all are kept safe. You provide me resources – you provide for all. You ask of me that I serve others – we all are called to benefit one another.

Lord, let me have a cheerful attitude today. My complaints are futile, indeed, disloyal. Let me be a source of gladness today, as my expression of faith in you.

(Letter #1013)