Good morning…
This week, a friend from our Sunday afternoon group sent us a prayer written by Howard Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981). We, as a group, read Thurman’s influential book Jesus and the Disinherited a few semesters back. Howard Thurman’s theology of radical nonviolence has shaped the faith life of generations, and he was a key mentor to leaders within the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.
Now I reread Thurman’s words again, beneath the light of tonight’s Wolf Supermoon.
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A Prayer For The New Year by Howard Thurman
God, Grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart. There will be much to test me and make weak my strength before the year ends.
In my confusion I shall often say the word that is not true and do the thing of which I am ashamed. There will be errors in the mind and great inaccuracies of judgment.
In seeking the light, I shall again and again find myself walking in the darkness. I shall mistake my light for Your light and I shall drink from the responsibility of the choice I make…
Though my days be marked with failures, stumblings, fallings, let my spirit be free so that You may take it and redeem my moments in all the ways my needs reveal. Give me the quiet assurance of Your Love and Presence. Grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart. Amen.
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Tomorrow, in churches across our globe, we will celebrate Epiphany—the day we remember the Magi, who traveled by starlight to bring gifts to the Christ child. Epiphany reminds us that God’s light is for everyone, and that our own faithful heart expresses itself through generosity, compassion, and prayerful action.
I am bound by Your promise, O God. My life is my offering of thanksgiving to You, for You have saved my soul from the darkness of death, steadied my feet from stumbling, so I might continue to walk before God, embraced in the light of the living (Psalm 56:12-13, VOICE).
Throughout this new year, may we continue to faithfully walk before God, embraced in the light of the living.
…Sue…
