A Prayer for When Life Seems More Messy Than Manageable

“Christian spirituality means living in the mature wholeness of the gospel. It means taking all the elements of your life—children, spouse, job, weather, possessions, relationships —and experiencing them as an act of faith. God wants all the material of our lives.”  —Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction

Dear Father,

I confess it's a lot easier to just let the elements of life carry me instead of experiencing them as what they are: expressions not only of my faith in you, but your entrustment of them to me to navigate in you. Life comes at me with both hands raised, ready for a fight, and I confess, I am not a fighter and so I stand there and take the pummeling.

If the Christian life means living in the mature wholeness of the gospel than that means at some point I have to let my requests rise to you and then let them fall back down in the form of today. Today you have answered every prayer with this situation. This home. These lives. This life. This work. These people. This church. This locale. Every prayer I have prayed has been answered in today's portion, even if the answer still seems so far off. And even if the answer is not what I wanted.

Jesus, not only do you want all the material of my life, you are the maker of the material of my life—and I confess, I wonder what you're making with this mess sometimes. My faith in you is strong, but my sight in life is dim and I don't know how to walk in the dark very well.

Would you light my path, today and tomorrow and all the days I can see? Would you light them with your word instead of my worries, your cross instead of my circumstances, your love instead of my life? Would you help me experience today as an act of faith that you still hold tomorrow, and all the troubles and delights it holds? It's in your name that I live and move and breathe, and it's in your name that I pray, Amen.