Thomas Merton Prayer

Below is a prayer I love, but they are not my words. They are the words of Thomas Merton, a well-known and some-what controversial author and Trappist monk. I encountered these words for the first time during a very uncertain season in my life. They brought comfort and encouragement. They also changed me. I recognized in my own heart a fear to say, "God, I don't really know you, but I wish I did." Not realizing at the time it is far less heretical and displeasing to God to just be honest and to speak the truth. In other words, I have come to know for certainty that honesty before God is crucial, even when it is the confessing of a heart which says "I just don't get it." I am posting this prayer to my site in hopes it can help others...and also as a testimony of my own uncertainty. The only thing I know for certain some days is that I want to please God, and I hope I have that desire lived out in all I do today! AMEN.

O 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 that 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 to please You. 

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 make my journey alone.