A Labyrinthine Journey

Dear God, I’m writing to you today because I find myself struggling with something in my prayers.

No, it isn’t praise and thanksgiving, because you have been showing me many ways that you have been working lately. No, it isn’t with any petitions or intercessions, you know there are always plenty of situations, events, and needs to bring before your love and grace. I confess though that I am having some trouble with that little word at the end: the Amen.

You know how easy it is for me to just come to the end of the prayer and sign off with that little word as if it is a signal that I am done now and that I can go on with the other stuff I want to do. But you have been trying to tell me something about that word lately, haven’t you?

You watched me look it up the other day. Did you smile when I read that it was a “hearty approval,” a “solemn ratification,” and a “Yes, so be it”? Did you laugh when my mind pictured Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise saying, “Make it so” and even “Engage”?

That little word is pretty dangerous, isn’t it? Instead of saying “bye bye” with it we are really giving our lives to you with it, aren’t we? You taught us to pray,

Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy Will be done
on earth
as it is in heaven.

And when we say “Amen,” you are really wanting us to become a participant in making your will a reality in our lives and also in our world through us, aren’t you?

O God, you know how hard that is for me. I am willful and stubborn. I want things to go my way when I want them. It is almost impossible for me to change that. I need your help both with my will and with my actions.

So Lord God,
help me to want and
help me to do
all that you want me to do.
Amen, So Be It, Yes!

In Surrender to You, God,

David