Daily Devotion

Marge Anderson

Today’s devotion was written by Marge Anderson (photo of St Brendan)

Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…”

A few years ago, I came across this prayer attributed to St. Brendan, a 6^th century Celtic monk who in legend sailed from Ireland in a small boat to spread Christianity. The prayer speaks to me profoundly.

Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.
Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You.'

   I am aging and things are changing: the children have grown, my body lets me down, friends are having problems. I am daily forced to “journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown.”  In this prayer I ask God to help me with the loss, and find new ways, new adventures in which to serve Christ. 

   Recently, with Covid all around us, this prayer speaks to me. Like all of us, I have had to “leave old ways”. Christ, I ask you to help me “trust in the darkness” of separation and lost jobs and illness, and know that you are “stronger than each storm”. 

   I also ask Christ to “break fresh ground” within my heart. As events have uncovered the lurking racism in our society and even within myself, I ask Christ to give me the courage to journey “into the unknown,” and explore my own prejudices and those of our culture, so I can truly love my neighbor.

   Finally, when I am feeling anxious, I pray, “I know that my times, even now, are in Your hand.” And I ask that Christ tune my spirit to the music of heaven. We are like musical instruments that sometimes – often – play out of tune. But Christ, will you tune me up so that somehow, what I do, my obedience, faulty though it may be, may count for you?

   May this prayer be a blessing to you too.