Since I accidentally pushed out a blank blog post yesterday to all who subscribe (oops!), I wanted to write something a little more substantive today to make it up to all of you.

I’ve been reading Thomas Merton’s book Thoughts in Solitude in an attempt to learn as much as I can about how to live in this strange, isolated pandemic time. I came across this prayer:

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 I will 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. (82)

So many of us are unsettled because we can’t see the road ahead of us. But we never really see the road ahead of us; we only see hints and glimpses. And we never really know ourselves. All we can do, in this time or any time, is desire to please God, take good risks in the knowledge that he is with us, and trust in his provision day by day.

May the peace of the Risen One be with you today and always.

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