A prayer
We all come face to face with challenges. At least that is a mark of how human we are. Hard times come wrapped in all manners. It could be that you cannot afford the college fees that will enable you graduate and compete with others in the job market. It could be that the person you love most does not love you back in equal measure and always finds time to cheat on you or just lie to you. It could be that the promotion you have been yearning for years cannot come to fruition just because you are a person of integrity and principled and would rather remain stuck in the same job grade than fulfill the sexual desires of your boss who wants to use your body as a conduit to your promotion.
Moreover, It could be that you are struggling to make ends meet and at that on some nights you cannot afford to tuck your children to sleep either because you are trying to finish on some school work or that the children want to keep you awake because they are the ones now pitying the condition you are in and want to keep awake to reassure you that better days are ahead. It could be that life just seems so hard for you and disasters for you come in two. It could be that you are just hard pressed to face situations as they are. These are just part of what makes us be!
But we must never give up. Look at the environment around you. If you do, then you will agree with me that we must accept that now is the time for turning. A while back the leaves were without any kind of life. They had dried up. In fact, the herbivores were dying for they did not have any vegetation to feed on! But alas! The leaves are beginning to turn from brown to green. Look at the birds!!! They are beginning to turn too and every morning you can hear them hum the tunes!!! The animals too are beginning to turn!! They are storing their food for dry spell!
I have learnt that for leaves, birds and animals, turning come instinctively. But for us humans, turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is never easy. It means losing face. It means starting all over again. And this is always painful. It means saying I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways and these are the ways that are making life hard for you and me.
Oh Lord, help us to turn, from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith. Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our lives as at the beginning, and turn us toward each other, Lord, for in isolation there is no life. Canon John reminds me, Oh Lord, that no man is an island.
Eric is thanking you for being his friend. I am thanking you for always being there at any crucial moment of my life. Maybe we have met, maybe we have never. It is always a pleasure. It does not matter the channel we use but somehow, we have made the timeless creed ‘E Pluribus Unum-out of many we are one’ be a reality. All I will ask God on your behalf is that He searches your heart and its sincerity and blesses you in a way you have never experienced before, and that at every moment He takes care of your anxious thoughts.
Oh Lord, grant my friend a clean heart; to walk by faith and not sight, to be an instrument of Your peace; to let the words of the mouth and the meditations of the heart be pleasing.
And as the Lord blesses you, let Him not pass me by
Moreover, It could be that you are struggling to make ends meet and at that on some nights you cannot afford to tuck your children to sleep either because you are trying to finish on some school work or that the children want to keep you awake because they are the ones now pitying the condition you are in and want to keep awake to reassure you that better days are ahead. It could be that life just seems so hard for you and disasters for you come in two. It could be that you are just hard pressed to face situations as they are. These are just part of what makes us be!
But we must never give up. Look at the environment around you. If you do, then you will agree with me that we must accept that now is the time for turning. A while back the leaves were without any kind of life. They had dried up. In fact, the herbivores were dying for they did not have any vegetation to feed on! But alas! The leaves are beginning to turn from brown to green. Look at the birds!!! They are beginning to turn too and every morning you can hear them hum the tunes!!! The animals too are beginning to turn!! They are storing their food for dry spell!
I have learnt that for leaves, birds and animals, turning come instinctively. But for us humans, turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is never easy. It means losing face. It means starting all over again. And this is always painful. It means saying I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways and these are the ways that are making life hard for you and me.
Oh Lord, help us to turn, from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith. Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our lives as at the beginning, and turn us toward each other, Lord, for in isolation there is no life. Canon John reminds me, Oh Lord, that no man is an island.
Eric is thanking you for being his friend. I am thanking you for always being there at any crucial moment of my life. Maybe we have met, maybe we have never. It is always a pleasure. It does not matter the channel we use but somehow, we have made the timeless creed ‘E Pluribus Unum-out of many we are one’ be a reality. All I will ask God on your behalf is that He searches your heart and its sincerity and blesses you in a way you have never experienced before, and that at every moment He takes care of your anxious thoughts.
Oh Lord, grant my friend a clean heart; to walk by faith and not sight, to be an instrument of Your peace; to let the words of the mouth and the meditations of the heart be pleasing.
And as the Lord blesses you, let Him not pass me by
