麻豆社

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Julia Loveless

Good morning.

In 1927, Max Erhman wrote a piece of prose poetry called 鈥楾he Desiderata鈥�. One extract reads 鈥渂eyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.鈥� Whatever your conception of 鈥済od鈥� may be, there is surely truth to be found in this sentiment.

In the Christian faith, this concept is captured in passages like these, taken from the message translator of psalm 139 - 鈥測ou shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother鈥檚 womb. Body and soul, I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration鈥攚hat a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body, you know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I鈥檇 even lived one day.鈥�

Despite the chaotic, exasperating, broken and fallen world we find ourselves in now - we have to somehow embrace the deliberateness of our existence. We were made to be here. We have a right to be here. The beauty is found in what we choose to do with that. God; I am becoming aware of the incredible intention you had when you created me for such a time as this. Help me embrace my existence today with gratitude and pursue a similar way of intentionality.

Amen.