Inspiration

At times things arrive on one`s doorstep by the strangest of ways, I tend to think it happens when one actually needs it for some known or unknown purpose. God is like that.  This prayer –this time just popped up on TV of all places, not even connected to religion really, but a mention of beliefs and belief systems and how they affect everything. 

Ever since I first read these words from Merton, they greatly inspired me and embraced them as my own. Well, I translate "inspire" being in spirit, which we often also tend to forget in the clutter and stress of our daily lives. 

However, as time went by, for some strange reason I had left it by the wayside, and forgot about it-perhaps because it was not as familiar as the prayers from my childhood, or the ones that I offer up daily. So, once more God intervened, as it often happens, and once more reminded me of Merton`s words. Maybe because it actually pleases Him-as Merton so beautifully stated. I hope it does.

“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 will I 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.”

-Thomas Merton, Thoughts on Solitude