TFTD - silence speaks volumes

"Silence is the first language of God; all else is a poor translation."

                                                                                    - Thomas Merton -

TFTD - He knows the way even when you don't

“I was not sure where I was going, and I could not see what I would do when I got [there]. But you saw further and clearer than I, and you opened the seas before my ship, whose track led me across the waters to a place I had never dreamed of, and which you were even then preparing to be my rescue and my shelter and my home.”

                                   - Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain -

I don't know where I'm going, but I know I'm not alone

Many of you will already be familiar with the prayer below, but it helps me to be reminded of it from time to time, and I hope it will bring something of value to you. Before writing this post, I said a short prayer, as I often do, to ask for guidance. And it came to me very strongly that I needed to post this prayer. I wouldn't ordinarily make you share my thought process for the sake of a "quote post", but I think someone reading this needs to be reading it at this time; and I think that person needs to know that there was intent behind this prayer being up on this day, even if the intent wasn't exactly mine!

So, whatever is going on with you, know that you are not alone. If you are anything like me, i.e. remotely human, then chances are you do feel that way sometimes, even if you know that's not true. Aside from the people who love you, God is always there beside you, and with you in whatever it is that's going on in your life. I sometimes feel distant from God, especially if I've been struggling with something for a long time. But I am learning to be mindful that even if I feel distant from God, He is always close to me. God doesn't distance himself from me, I put up walls and dull my sense of Him. Notice I don't say that I distance myself from Him. I believe that no matter how hard you try to push Him away, no matter how impregnable your fortress seems, God is always there with you. That's the point of Him. He loves us too much to leave us as we are, but He does love us as we are. He is endlessly loving, and endlessly patient, and He will wait until we turn to Him. Until we turn and see Him there, and realise  that He has always been there, He is ever with us, and He will never leave us. 

The Merton Prayer

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 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 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 I will trust in 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 in Solitude", Part Two, Chapter II)