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A Prayer to Pray
The other day I went into one of my professors office to ask for some advice on life. This wasn’t a scheduled time, I literally just dropped in. He welcomed me, and we began to talk. I’ve been wrestling through a lot of things, one of those being relationship circumstances and the other my future.
We talked about being obedient to God. What the next simple step is that will bring Him great joy in my desire to please Him. Then he handed me a prayer to read, a prayer to meditate on.
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 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 I will 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 in Solitude”
This prayer now hangs next to my bed. I pray it every night. I’m trying to memorize these words so I can keep them close to my heart. In fact, I think every college student should have this prayer memorized.
