Morning Meditation

 

For the last several weeks of September we have been exploring the idea that your life is the curriculum, that what we have is here and now, that faith is a way-less way.  I know this is countercultural to a world of talking heads who claim to know exactly what is going to happen and platitudes marketed to you through pop up ads to purchase ~ each promising to take away your pain.  Honestly, the church has done this too.  Pastors have pounded pulpits telling you what to think and do, then we pass the plate asking for a contribution. 

 

I recognize and realize that in a world that is VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), we want some place to stand amid the shifting sand.  So where does that leave us?  This week, I want to share a few poems and prayers I find meaningful and helpful to return to time and time again.  The first is a prayer by Thomas Merton.  I invite you to pray these words slowly and savor every syllable.  I encourage you to pause after each sentence, letting the sink into your soul.

 

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

 

May God, who is here and now, in the wayless way continue to guide you every minute as we enter this new month of October.  Amen.