A Prayer For Where I Want To Be
God, I come before you to confess that where I am at is not really where I want to be. I look to the past and find the most easily glamorized moments and admit, I would rather be there. I worry for the future, dream it up, envision it how I would want it to be—and forget to invite you in. For the present, I confess, I do not have much love for. It is unfortunately where the worry really consumes me; stealing my joy and making the hard things even more difficult.
God of the present, God of the here and now, God who meets me right where I am and sits with me in this precise moment—I ask you to help me meet you here, help me to be present to your presence, and to be present with others. I pray for a presence that peacefully opens me up to the joys that meet me smack dap where I am.
In the car on my morning commute, help me pay attention to the smile that comes on my face when I see a car zipping by with the rear window rolled down so a German Shepherd can stick his head out the window. This little moment of joy points to love. You, God of Joy, are not absent in the little joys—you, O God of Joy, are so very present in each moment, big and small and all the moments in between.
God, I confess I am not always where I want to be—because the future and the past inside my head seem oh so much better than right here, where I am, feet firmly on the ground—in those moments, help me to be here because you know where I really want to be is right here, right now, with you.
May my heart be open to all the joyful moments and the less joyful moments that invite me in, may I receive them and allow myself to join in them—for they are truly invitations to be right here, right now, in the present and most of all they are invitations to meet you and find you here in the present.
Guide me where you would like me to be God. Reveal to me what it is that you would have me to know. Bring me closer to you, closer to my authentic self, and closer to my fellow siblings.
In your holy and precious name I pray,
Amen.
