I realize that many of you, like me, are so Protestant (protest-ants) that we think it spiritually disingenuous to pray the prayer of someone else, unless it is the prayer of Jesus that we call The Lord's Prayer. But I think we Protest-ants may be cheating ourselves out of a valuable resource of spiritual vitality.
My father-in-law, a spiritually strong and Godly man gave me a copy of this prayer written by Max Ehrmann, found in The Wings of Healing. I find myself praying these phrases capture the essence of my spiritual desire and I want to make them mine. Perhaps his prayer will move you to deeper intimacy with God as well. "Let me do my work each day; and if the darkened hours of despair overcome me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation of other times. May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood, or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river, when a light glowed within me, and I promised my early God to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years. "Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments. May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world know me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as shall keep me friendly with myself. Lift my eyes from the earth, and let me not forget the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn myself. "Let me not follow the clamor of the world, but walk calmly in my path. Give me a few friends, who will love me for what I am; and keep ever burning before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope. And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life, and for time's olden memories that are good and sweet; and may the evening's twilight fine me gentle still."
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