Comfort & Courage

Let’s visit again the image of someone navigating a river (below) that Meghan shared with us Sunday, an image originally published in Dr. Dan Siegel’s The Whole Brain Child.

There’s a famous prayer drawn from Reinhold Niebuhr that seems to give voice to our desire to travel this river of life faithfully and whole-heartedly:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

God, help me acknowledge the areas where I am not actually in control and trust that you are - keep me from steering into over-responsibility for the world, from smashing into the shores of rigidity.

courage to change the things I can,

God, help me embrace the areas I really can control, the perhaps small but meaningful ways I can choose to care well for myself and others - keep me veering into under-responsibility and miring myself in the weeds of chaos.

and wisdom to know the difference.

God, help me sense your leading day by day, moment by moment, because I’m in new territory, without prior experience or maps to rely on. Give me wisdom - guide my head and heart.

Perhaps that’s a prayer you’d like to spend more time with this week, just taking a few minutes a few times a day to share those words with God, to breathe deeply and invite God’s presence. Perhaps you could read this short Psalm as an entrance into that time, allowing yourself to curl up with God like a trusting child with a loving mother, finding comfort and courage in her embrace.

My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.

- Psalm 131