Tag: spiritual restoration

A Prayer of Confession and Contrition (Nehemiah 9:16-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

But they—our own ancestors—acted arrogantly.
They became stubborn and wouldn’t obey your commands.
They refused to listen.
They forgot the miracles you performed for them.
They became stubborn and appointed a leader
to take them back to slavery in Egypt.
But you are a forgiving God,
one who is compassionate, merciful, patient,
and always ready to forgive.
You never abandoned them,
even when they made a metal statue of a calf for themselves
and said, ‘This is your god who took you out of Egypt.’
They committed outrageous sins.
But because of your endless compassion,
you didn’t abandon them in the desert.
The column of smoke didn’t leave them during the day,
but it led them on their way.
The column of fire didn’t leave them during the night,
but it gave them light to see the way they should go.
You gave them your good Spirit to teach them.
You didn’t keep your manna to yourself.
You gave them water to quench their thirst.
You provided for them in the desert for 40 years,
and they had everything they needed.
Their clothes didn’t wear out, and their feet didn’t swell.

You gave kingdoms and nations to the Israelites
and assigned them their boundaries.
So they took possession of the land of Sihon,
the land of the king of Heshbon,
and the land of King Og of Bashan.
You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky.
You brought them into the land you told their parents to enter and possess.
Their children took possession of the land.
You defeated for them the Canaanites, who lived in the land.
You handed the Canaanite kings and their people over to them
to do whatever they wanted with the Canaanites.
The Israelites captured fortified cities and a rich land.
They took possession of houses filled with all sorts of good things,
cisterns, vineyards, olive trees,
and plenty of fruit trees.
So they ate and were satisfied and grew fat.
They enjoyed the vast supply of good things you gave them. (God’s Word Translation)

The Jewish people had experienced the Babylonian Captivity. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down, and the Temple was ransacked and destroyed.

Years later, the Persians overthrew the Babylonians, and many of the Jewish captives were allowed to return to Judea. One of the returning groups was led by Nehemiah, who was a cupbearer to the king.

Nehemiah engaged in an ambitious project of rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall and securing the city. It was a large undertaking. Yet, even more daunting was restoring the Jewish people’s worship of Yahweh, and following the Torah, God’s law.

Today’s Old Testament lesson takes place in the fifth century B.C.E. Nehemiah, along with the religious leader Ezra the scribe, organized a public assembly. The people listened to the Torah being read, and were fasting, confessing, and repenting of the ways they had neglected God’s law.

A group of Levites (the priests) stood up and said a long prayer of confession. Our verses for today are a part of that extended time of confession of sin and profession of faith. The people’s past history was very much a part of their present circumstances.

The Levities emphasized that it is God’s nature to be full of faithfulness and steadfast love. So, the Lord preserved the Israelites and rescued them out of Egyptian slavery through a series of miraculous wonders.

While their ancestors were out in a desert sojourn, anticipating entry into the Promised Land, God was faithful to provide for the Israelites both physical and spiritual food – Torah and manna.

And yet, despite the incredible rescue from Egypt, and miraculously escaping through the Red Sea, the people were rebellious. Their disobedience to God in the golden calf experience prevented that generation from entering into the promised rest. (Hebrews 3:16-19)

Every generation has its “sinners,” those who seem to have a bent toward selfish behavior, and refuse to see the needs of the entire group. They only serve God if it serves their own self-centered purposes. And they stubbornly refuse to bend to anyone’s wishes, including God’s.

Unfortunately, that sin of pride and arrogance gets passed down to the next generations. It’s not only, in some ways, taught; this sort of stubbornness also appears to have a genetic component, as well. Whenever our minds and hearts are rewired with injustice toward others and disobedience toward God, that wacky wiring gets passed down to the next generations.

It is quite likely that past trauma has a lot to do with skewed minds and hearts.

Epigenetics is a scientific field which investigates how environment influences our genes. Trauma does not alter our actual DNA sequence; but it does impact how that sequence is read and utilized in our body.

When an individual experiences trauma, their body may adapt by adjusting gene expression, and some of these changes can be passed on to their children. It’s like passing on genetic notes to our progeny – which means that these notes can be rewritten (and rewired) by our own life experiences and actions.

I am not a genetic scientist, yet this may be something akin to the divine warning about generational sin, arising from a generation’s trauma experience, after being enslaved and mistreated for 400 years in Egypt. In giving the Law to Moses, God then said:

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7, NIV)

Whether any of us knows anything about genetics and epigenetics, or not, there yet remains the need for a prayer of confession. It is necessary to acknowledge our own sins, as well as the sins of our ancestors.

In their prayer of confession, the Levites in Nehemiah’s time acknowledged and confessed their own guilt, and the guilt of their ancestors, of being the following:

  1. Obstinate. They stubbornly presumed God would be with them, then obstinately did whatever the heck they wanted.
  2. Stubborn. They were “stiff-necked” and refused to obey God when they didn’t want to.
  3. Forgetful. Not an accidental forgetting, but a purposeful neglect to remember what God had done for the people.
  4. Idolatrous. It was the people’s impatience with waiting for Moses on Mount Sinai that led to the golden calf idol disaster. Failing to accept God’s timetable will always lead to a bevy of bad behavior.
  5. Disobedient. The most sinister form of this is obeying halfway, and believing that you have completely done your duty for God, i.e. the sin of one person, Achan, affecting the entire community. (Joshua 7:1, 10-12, 20-26)
  6. Complaining. Murmuring and grumbling is the dissatisfying attitude and speech of ingrates. When directed at God, it is a failure of faith, replaced with a belief that God is mean and/or capricious.

Confession and repentance are the remedies to both individual and communal guilt. And that is exactly what Ezra and Nehemiah organized the post-exilic Israelites to do, publicly.

Not only did they offer a prayer of confession and repentance, but they also acknowledged and believed God’s faithfulness and mercy to forgive, renew, and restore.

Indeed, God’s grace is greater than all of our sin.

The Levites were not simply offering a mechanical liturgical formula for corporate confession. They were crying out with heartfelt confession to the God they believed was listening and would respond.

As the Levites led the people in confession and repentance, they pointed to the following attributes and activities of God which they put all of their trust in:

God forgives.

He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:7-12, NIV)

God guides.

He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:3, NIV)

God provides.

He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
    the Lord is gracious and compassionate.
He provides food for those who fear him;
    he remembers his covenant forever. (Psalm 111:4-5, NIV)

God sustains.

I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. (Psalm 3:5, NIV)

When all is said and done, the centrality of God is humanity’s ballast. As we orient all of life around the Lord, this is what makes all the difference in coming to grips with our past, present, and future.

May it be so, to the glory of God.

Implementing Reform (2 Kings 23:1-14)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Then the king [Josiah] called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. 

The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. 

He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.

Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the gateway at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which was on the left of the city gate. Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. 

The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones. (New International Version)

An engraving of King Josiah tearing down the idols, by Philip Galle (1537-1612)

The actions and reforms of King Josiah were bold, pervasive, and challenging.

The Book of Law was found in the Temple. Incredibly, over time, it had been lost. No one had read the words from that large scroll for a very long time. Yet, when Josiah decided to repair the dilapidated Temple, the Torah scroll was found.

Having heard the Torah’s words read to him, Josiah was cut to the heart. He quickly realized that he and the people had strayed far from the laws and commands of their God. So, Josiah was determined to do something about it.

The king decided to reinstate the provisions of the Torah. He assembled people from all levels of Jewish leadership and made a formal covenant to reinstitute the laws found in the scroll.

Over the centuries, other Jewish kings had introduced foreign deities, and built altars to those gods, even within the house of the Lord. There were sacrificial worship practices happening in Judea, from an array of nations with gods at odds with Yahweh, the one true God of Israel.

King Josiah’s purpose was to completely restore the worship of Yahweh, centered in Jerusalem. This meant that all the other gods and their worship practices had to be eliminated. They were defiling the worship of Yahweh.

Beginning in Jerusalem, and going throughout the entire land, Josiah enacted his reforms by removing the altars of foreign gods, high places of worship, and the priests who officiated at them.

Josiah’s reforms had their foundation in a clear set of values. The king knew exactly what he wanted the nation of Judah to be like, which warranted a thorough riddance of everything that was an obstacle to the values espoused in the Torah scroll.

Since Josiah had an objective standard, he was able to aggressively change anything which did not align with those values of worship and practice. And a lot of things had to go in order for the scriptural standard to be enacted and remain.

Most of us are never going to be in a position as Josiah. Yet, we can still bring about the sort of values change that is needed. Change always begins with us personally.

There may be a lot of things in your life, presently, which are obstacles to what you really want. We tend to accumulate a lot of extraneous things in our lives that are not adding to what is most important to us. This is why we often feel so loaded down with all sorts of busyness and activity.

Josiah’s reforms were a national large-scale pruning, so that the true worship of Yahweh could happen. A good place to begin for many of us is to do a regular pruning of our lives, so that we can keep ourselves free of the stuff that doesn’t really matter.

We must rid ourselves of guilt and shame, of the sin which weighs down the soul.

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1b, NIV)

We need to carefully prune our religious activities, so that we can spiritually grow and mature.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful… Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:1-4, NIV)

It is good to identify and toss out plans that don’t achieve what we really need and want in life; and are not in sync with what God wants to do in our lives.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:11, NIV)

Like a good gardener, it is imperative we keep the garden of our soul free of weeds, insects, and critters that would either choke out or eat away at what is most important in life.

Blessed God, I will try this day to live a simple, sincere and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and selfishness; cultivating cheerfulness, encouragement, love, and the habit of holy silence; exercising restraint in purchasing, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in work, faithfulness in every task, and faith in all things.

And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to you, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, through the enablement of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Renewal (Mark 6:30-34, 53-56)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Great Crowds Followed Jesus as He Preached the Good News, by Elizabeth Wang (1942-2016)

The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 

Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things….

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 

And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. (New Revised Standard Version)

Recuperation

Christ’s disciples had just returned from their first ministry trip without Jesus. He had sent them in pairs to take authority over unclean spirits, with specific instructions on how to handle themselves. (Mark 6:6-13)

Now they had come together after a successful experience. Jesus immediately recognized that the disciples needed rest in a private retreat so that they could recover and debrief on their mission.

Jesus knew a thing or two about what we now call “self-care.” Christ understood the necessity for awareness of one’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state – and to take appropriate steps in caring for oneself in order to maintain a vigorous life and ministry. He often punctuated his life with solitary times away with his heavenly Father. (e.g. Mark 1:35)

So, the disciples followed Jesus to a deserted place where they could be alone. Besides, it had become ever more risky to be out in the open. The religious authorities were looking for ways to snuff out this popular upstart of a movement with Jesus as rabbi.

Redirection

Things don’t always go as planned, even for the Son of God. Interruptions are part of working with people. Yet, Jesus never saw those disruptions as a bad thing. It seems that perhaps he even understood them as part of the plan from his heavenly Father. However Christ thought of them, he was unfazed by them.

With an expanding ministry came a larger and more expansive crowd following Jesus. Like a group of ancient paparazzi, there were people dedicated to tracking down Jesus and watching for him; they were absolutely intent on seeing him.

Whereas a lot of people might be annoyed with this behavior (especially us introverts!) Jesus truly saw them, viewing the crowds as “sheep without a shepherd.” In other words, Christ understood the people’s vulnerability, and he had compassion on them.

Refocus

Christ felt genuine care and concern for the people from the pit of his gut. Jesus knew their very real spiritual predicament, an age-old one that God was familiar with:

I, the Lord God, say you shepherds of Israel are doomed! You take care of yourselves while ignoring my sheep. You drink their milk and use their wool to make your clothes. Then you butcher the best ones for food. But you don’t take care of the flock! You have never protected the weak ones or healed the sick ones or bandaged those that get hurt. You let them wander off and never look for those that get lost. You are cruel and mean to my sheep. They strayed in every direction, and because there was no shepherd to watch them, they were attacked and eaten by wild animals. (Ezekiel 34:2-5, CEV)

Jesus, in the spirit Moses, took up the concern for people:

Moses spoke to the Lord: “Let the Lord, the God of all living things, appoint someone over the community who will go out before them and return before them, someone who will lead them out and bring them back, so that the Lord’s community won’t be like sheep without their shepherd.” (Numbers 27:15-17, CEB)

Because the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd and takes up the responsibility of caring for the flock, there were sheep (the crowds of people) continually either present around him or pursuing him (hence, the need for continual times of rest and recuperation).

All of this resulted in the impossibility of Jesus strolling into a town, village, or city under the radar.

Restoration

Not only did everyone want to see Jesus, but the people also desired to touch him, or at least the tassels of his garment – anything toget close and experience healing.

What’s so amazing about this account is that every single person who Jesus saw or touched experienced healing – without exception. It wasn’t that a few people, or even some of them, walked away changed. All of them did.

Indeed, Jesus is the divine shepherd, who will gather his sheep from the places where they have been scattered.

Christ went into towns and villages to the public places where the people were. That meant Jesus spent a good deal of time in the marketplaces. Since these were gathering areas where people bought and sold and interacted with each other, there you would also find the weakest, sickest, and most vulnerable people.

The needy were looking for help. And Jesus did for them, well beyond what any of them expected.

The Lord Jesus was also doing more than we might expect, as well. By conducting ministry in the economic center of a town, he was introducing a different (and subversive) economy from the kingdom of God.

Those with goods, resources, and money do not occupy the commercial spaces in God’s kingdom realm. Instead, the ones with the least, inhabit the spaces and places of honor. Indeed, many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. (Mark 10:31)

Christ’s earthly ministry restored people’s bodies, minds, emotions, and spirits – thus bringing a thriving economy into God’s kingdom. All of his work resulted in renewal of people’s lives, and a renewed way of living in this world.

“Healer of Our Every Ill” by Marty Haugen, 1987

Refrain:
Healer of our every ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.

You who know our fears and sadness,
grace us with your peace and gladness;
Spirit of all comfort, fill our hearts. [Refrain]

In the pain and joy beholding
how your grace is still unfolding,
give us all your vision, God of love. [Refrain]

Give us strength to love each other,
every sister, every brother;
Spirit of all kindness, be our guide. [Refrain]

You who know each thought and feeling,
teach us all your way of healing;
Spirit of compassion, fill each heart. [Refrain]

Amen.

There Is Hope (Psalm 89:20-37)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Ethiopian Orthodox depiction of Jesus

“I have found my servant David;
    with my holy oil I have anointed him;
my hand shall always remain with him;
    my arm also shall strengthen him.
The enemy shall not outwit him;
    the wicked shall not humble him.
I will crush his foes before him
    and strike down those who hate him.
My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him,
    and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
I will set his hand on the sea
    and his right hand on the rivers.
He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
    my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’
I will make him the firstborn,
    the highest of the kings of the earth.
Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him,
    and my covenant with him will stand firm.
I will establish his line forever
    and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
If his children forsake my law
    and do not walk according to my ordinances,
if they violate my statutes
    and do not keep my commandments,
then I will punish their transgression with the rod
    and their iniquity with scourges,
but I will not remove from him my steadfast love
    or be false to my faithfulness.
I will not violate my covenant
    or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness;
    I will not lie to David.
His line shall continue forever,
    and his throne endure before me like the sun.
It shall be established forever like the moon,
    an enduring witness in the skies.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Back when today’s psalm was originally crafted, there was a lot of stress for the Jews in Jerusalem. The city was in ruins, the land without their king, and the people were experiencing divine judgment from their God.

Into this situation, the psalmist brought some light from darkness; and hope for the survivors, that blessings lay in the future. The psalm is a song of prayer, speaking of the Lord’s faithfulness and steadfast love because of the promises made to the people’s ancient ancestor, King David.

The covenant between God and the people, made so many centuries ago, will never be broken. Why? Because fidelity to that covenant doesn’t depend on the people, but on the faithfulness of God and God’s timeless moral law.

The Lord God, the Almighty, did not forsake nor forget the people. The Lord’s mercies are new every morning; and God’s faithful love is forever.

Renewal and restoration are very real possibilities, despite the dire circumstances, and the people’s spiritual infidelity. Once again in history, one worthy of the throne of David will sit to judge the people with equity and grace.

The Son of David will be the custodian of God’s covenant promises. Evil shall be defeated. Authority to forgive sins, and to grant eternal life, will be established on earth. Indeed, the Lord’s enduring words and ways will be accomplished on this earth, as they are always done in God’s heaven.

The divine covenant will find its ultimate fulfillment in One whose throne is established for all eternity. The anointed one, the God-Man, will carry the burden of government on his shoulders; his rule and authority shall extend over the whole earth. (Isaiah 9:7)

Acting with the power of God, this Ruler is the visible image of the invisible God – the Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. For the Christian, these qualifications and descriptions are all met in the person of Jesus the Christ.

In a thoroughly and unabashed Christo-centric reading of the psalm, Jesus is the ultimate Messiah and High Priest who offered himself as the faultless, acceptable, eternal, and final sacrifice on behalf of the whole world. (Isaiah 53)

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2, NRSV)

Through Jesus, the New Testament perspective is that the old Mosaic Covenant became obsolete, and the New Covenant – promised by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel – took its place. (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27; Hebrews 8:13)

Although this High Priest died, he also was raised to life, and ascended to heaven – where he continues to intercede for God’s people.

He holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:24-25, NRSV)

Before David was anointed king, Saul and his enemies hunted him and tried to kill him. Yet, through all of those twists and turns of harrowing circumstances, David trusted in the Lord and patiently waited for God to ensconce him as king. In time, that is precisely what happened. And David became the greatest king Israel ever had.

In much the same way, that fox King Herod tried to kill Jesus. Then later, Herod’s son, along with the religious establishment, sought to kill Jesus, as well. Behind the murderous intent, and every intent of doing away with the innocent, are the dark evil forces of this world.

The Accuser, Satan, the devil, tried to tempt the Christ and subvert the will of God, thus making the New Covenant something that would never happen. But Jesus was obedient to the Father – obedient even to death. (Philippians 2:8)

Christ Jesus offered himself willingly. His death may have been orchestrated by the existence of evil on this earth, yet it was God who allowed it all to occur, so that evil’s murderous tool, death, would become impotent.

The power of sin, death, and hell has been broken; but it will take awhile before the kingdom of God is established in all its grace and glory, and David’s fallen Tabernacle restored.

No matter how difficult, chaotic, and frustrating our current earthly situation may be, God will still establish the king; the good work begun and effected shall ultimately be thoroughly fulfilled. Jesus is coming again.

Until then, the good news is proclaimed that the kingdom of God is near. There is grace and forgiveness in the name of Jesus. Peace is no longer a pipe dream. Hope is real.

O Lord, when evil darkens our world, give us light. When despair numbs our souls, give us hope. When we stumble and fall, lift us up. When doubts assail us, give us faith. When nothing seems sure, give us trust. When ideals fade, give us vision. When we lose our way, be our guide, so that we may find serenity in Your presence, and purpose in doing Your will. Amen.