For the Journey
Do you know what’s good for you? Knowing and then doing what we know is good for us are two distinct things. I know that jogging is very good for my body and spirit, but going over to the Recreation Center is not only a good idea, but something I don’t always want to do.
Taking vitamins is good for us, the medical profession tells us. We are just beginning to believe them, but again we don’t all take them all the time. We resist those activities which do not give us immediately thefeedback desired. We might begin a diet Monday morning and Tuesday morning we step lightly on the scale hoping to find less of us there. We want results and pretty darn quick!
We begin these weeks of exercising our spirits according to the pattern given by God to us through Ignatius Loyola, accompanied also by this human resistance to what is good for us.
First guide then is this: do not expect, look for or demand progress. Enjoy and live the process, even though as with physical exercise, you might not like doing them every day. As with a diet, you might have to give something up, like time, activity and accomplishments. We allow God to give the increase, the insights, the progress. We begin expecting God to be busy laboring on our part of creation which we have found quite unfinished as a work of art.
This is the first guidepost, don’t stop here; the journey is worth the expense. Go for it!
In These or Similar Words
Dear Lord,
This seems easy, going back through the ‘photo album’ of my life. Can I really call this prayer? I can go back to my earliest memories, of being a toddler. I wonder what connection this little child has to me? As I move through my life, into school, learning to read and expanding my world, I can notice things in this ‘album’ that I don’t want to see. They are difficult memories that cause pain and I thought I had put them away permanently. Not everything in my childhood was good. Where were you in that, Lord? Were you with me as I watched the shouting, the arguing?
There were good times, too. Running so freely as a kid, climbing trees, exploring the banks of the creek and sledding down the big hill in winter. There is a freedom to those moments and I sense you in that too. As I got older, I made choices, Lord. For some of them, I ignored you completely and tried to pretend you didn’t matter in my life. But you stayed with me so faithfully anyway. You guided my headstrong decisions into choices that helped me into a loving life and a good marriage.
Thank you, Lord, for your constant presence in my life, especially today.
Dear Lord,
I feel a little uncomfortable. This kind of prayer is new to me and I’m a little more comfortable using someone else’s words. But I tried it yesterday and it wasn’t hard, it just didn’t always feel like prayer.
I return today and I look at the places where it hurts, the memories where I want to squirm, pull away and try to forget again. It hasn’t always been easy in my life. Were you really with me in all of it? I feel you so strongly now, but I never thought much about you during those times.
How have these difficult times shaped me into what I am today? How has your faithful guidance helped me unseen over the years. Please help me to see your presence in my life and to be guided by it.
Prayer to Begin Each Day:
Lord, I so wish to prepare well for this time.
I so want to make all of me ready and attentive and available to you.
Please help me clarify and purify my intentions.
I have so many contradictory desires.
My activity seems to be so full of busyness
and running after stuff that doesn’t really seem to matter or last.
I know that if I give you my heart
whatever I do will follow my new heart.
May all that I am today,
all that I try to do today,
may all my encounters, reflections,
even the frustrations and failings
all place my life in your hands.
Lord, my life is in your hands.
Please, let this day give you praise.
Scripture Readings:
Psalm 8
Psalm 139