Dear Lord

Prayer of the Day ( July 10, 1979)

Dear Lord, I will remain restless, tense, and dissatisfied until I can be totally at peace in your house. But I am still on the road, still journeying, still tired and weary, and still wondering if I will ever make it to the city on the hill. With Vincent van Gogh, I keep asking your angel, whom I meet on the road, "Does the road go uphill then all the way?" And the answer is, "Yes to the very end." And I ask again: "And will the journey take all day long?" And the answer is, "From morning until night my friend."

So I go on, Lord, tired, often frustrated, irritated, but always hopeful to reach one day the eternal city far away, respondent in the evening sun.

There is no certainty that my life will be any easier in the years ahead, or that my heart will be any calmer. But there is the certainty that you will be waiting for me and will welcome me home when I have preserved in my long journey to your house.

O Lord, give me courage, hope, and confidence.

Amen

Henri Nouwen, Prayers from the Genesse