Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Merton on Direction

Sometimes it's hard to know if you are heading in the right direction. Is the place I'm at now where I'm supposed to be? Will the road I'm on lead me to where I am supposed to go? How do I know God's will? Those might be scary questions at times, but I would submit that the truly frightening thing is when we fail to ask those questions. The following is a prayer by Thomas Merton from his work "Thoughts in Solitude." It is simple, honest, and quite profound.

"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 that 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 I will trust You always though I 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."

1 comment:

  1. merton has said here a prayer i could surely echo. it seems so fitting a description of my own feelings about my journey. i think this applies to all of us at least some (if not a lot) of the time. no wonder i like this guy....and it's no surprise that our friend wayne burns thinks a lot of him as well.

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