One Word
This winter on The Daily Pattern we’re in a series called One Word. Each day we take one word – a feeling or circumstance – and bring a word from God to it. Let the Word of God speak to your life.
Invocation
Make the sign of the cross, and say,
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Invitation Prayer
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5) O Lord, I am lowly and humble. You alone are my inheritance. Amen.
Word: Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Meditation
Trust by Susan Becher Schultz
As a true millennial, I’ve developed an at-home yoga practice courtesy of Yoga with Adriene on Youtube. One of my favorite quotes of hers is “Trust the journey, trust yourself.” She encourages students not to look down at their mat but to trust their feet will land exactly where they are supposed to.
I don’t trust easily, which is perhaps why I chose to meditate upon this word. I’ve lived life fearful of social situations, of what others think of me, of what others could do to harm me. As I sit here writing on the first day of 2022, I feel a sense of safety as I’m supported by this fresh start. I can look back and say fear took on a whole new meaning to me in 2021. Where I once thought the antonym of fear was courage or joy, I think I can say for me, it’s trust.
During my diagnosis of PTSD, I lived in a guest room in my parent’s house out in the country. They have a gravel path that circles their property. Each morning I would wake up and terror would flood through me, filling my veins like some kind of poison. I knew logically I was safe. I knew I was surrounded by love and support. But I didn’t trust it. What little trust I had in people was stolen from me in emergency rooms on the east coast. Yet every morning I’d throw on whatever shoes were closest to my bedside, and I would get on that path.
Every day the path revealed something different to me. Sometimes a butterfly would flutter across. Or I’d walk into a ginormous spider web. Once I heard a rustling in the leaves, and though I was terrified, I peered into the woods to find a large turtle scuffling across the forest floor. I stopped to admire his beautifully symmetric shell before setting foot back on the path. Some days I prayed out loud. Other days my intrusive thoughts were so horrific I don’t remember the walk at all. But it was an act of trust. Showing up for myself. Letting nature heal what doctors couldn’t.
After several months I realized what was happening. I no longer pleaded for healing or clarity. I was letting the walks lead me into a conversation with the world God created. I no longer needed anything from it. I was content to be alive in it. It was more than trusting the journey and trusting myself. It was trusting, maybe for the first time, that the world wasn’t out to get me. That the rustle in the distance wasn’t something to fear, but something to walk toward with curiosity.
Help me to trust that you are on the path, wherever it may lead. That even when the path turns unexpectedly or seems impossible to continue on, you are there, beckoning me toward you, Amen.
Prayer for Family
· For my immediate family (parents, spouse, siblings).
· For extended family (cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents)
· For close friends that are as family to me.
· For those who don’t have families, or whose families are broken.
· For forgiveness and reconciliation where there is division in my family.
· For provision where there is need in my family.
· For God to be the foundation, and the cross the center of my family.
· For a generation yet unborn, future members of our family.
Closing Prayer
O Lord and King, your Kingdom comes even without our prayer. But we pray that it would also come among us. We are desperate for your reign and rule, for all we see is rebellion. Come into my heart, my home, my family, my work, my church, my community. Rule with justice and with mercy. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.