A paraphrase from 24 hours a day , entry for September 22, by Richmond Walker.
Meditation for the Day
There should be joy in living the spiritual life. A faith without joy is not entirely genuine. If you are not happier as a result of your faith, there is probably something wrong with it. Faith in (a higher power) should bring you a deep feeling of happiness and security, no matter what happens on the surface of your life. Each new day is another opportunity to serve (the Divine) and improve your relationships with other people. This should bring joy. Life should be abundant and outreaching. It should be glowing and outgoing, in ever widening circles. Prayer for the Day
I pray that my horizons may grow ever wider. I pray that I may keep reaching out for more service and companionship.
Today’s 24 hours a day entry has me thinking that i have left religious authorities create a false distinction in my thinking between prayer and meditation. One is not a rote repetition of infantile adoration and the other a mysterious advanced metaphysical practice. Contemplation on my weaknesses and the greater power that is always available at any time is an essential part of how I can live sober. And in today’s writing, I can quite easily let ‘God’ be a placeholder word.
Meditation for the Day
Pray - and keep praying until it brings peace and serenity and a feeling of communion with One who is near and ready to help. The thought of God is balm for our hates and fears. In praying to God, we find healing for hurt feelings and resentments. In thinking of God, doubts and fears leave us. Instead of those doubts, and fears, there will flow into our hearts such faith and love as is beyond the power of material things to give, and such peace as the world can neither give nor take away. And with God, we can have the tolerance to live and let live. Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have true tolerance and understanding. I pray that I may keep striving for these difficult things.
Meditation for the Day
There is only one-way to get full satisfaction from life and that is to live the way you believe (The Divine) wants you to live. Live with (The Divine) in that secret place of the spirit and you will have a feeling of being on the right road. You will have a deep sense of satisfaction. The world will have meaning and you will have a place in the world, work to do that counts in the eternal order of things. Many things will work for you and with you, as long as you feel (this). Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have a sense of the eternal value of the work I do. I pray that I may not only work for now, but also for eternity.
For many years, even while drinking, my career was directly helping others. In sobriety, I switched to a corporate job, with much higher pay and far less social impact. For some time I justified my life as a corporate shill because it enabled me to supply my kids with a lifestyle that allowed them to explore. I had started working at age 12 and was fully responsible financially for myself at 18. The economy was depressed for many years and I put aside my dreams to provide for myself and by age 20 my young family. My kids have not known that privation and have been able to explore both large and small issues in their lives from the comfort of knowing financial security.
Today, as I wind down my corporate life and head toward retirement in 3 or 4 years, my mission is to mentor the young people I have hired onto my team. And after retiring, I will be able to devote myself once again to work that has the direct social impact I value.
None of this would be possible without my sobriety.
Meditation for the Day
Day by day we should slowly build up an unshakable faith in a Higher Power and in that Power’s ability to give us all the help we need. By having these quiet times each morning, we start each day with a renewing of our faith, until it becomes almost a part of us and is a strong habit. We should keep furnishing the quiet places of our souls with all the furniture of faith. We should try to fill our thoughts each day with all that is harmonious and good, beautiful and enduring. Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may build a house in my soul for the spirit of God to dwell in. I pray that I may come at last to an unshakable faith.
Though it may seem a paradox, we must believe in spiritual forces, which we cannot see more than in material things which we can see, if we are going to truly live. In the last analysis, the universe consists more of thought or mathematical formulas than it does of matter, as we understand it. Between one human being and another only spiritual forces will suffice to keep them in harmony. These spiritual forces we know, because we can see their results although we cannot see them. A changed life - a new personality - results from the power of unseen spiritual forces working in us and through us.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may believe in the Unseen. I pray that I may be convinced by the results of the Unseen, which I do see.
24 hours a day, October 28
Paraphrased by yours truly.
Every little thing is gonna be alright Bob Marley
Meditation for the Day
We can align ourselves with the Divine Will in anticipation of the thing happening which will, in the long run, be the best for all concerned. It may not always seem the best thing at the present time, but we cannot see spiritually very far ahead. We do not know how such plans are laid, we only need to believe that if we trust and accept whatever happens in a spirit of faith, everything will work out for the best in the end. Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not ask to see the distant scene. I pray that one step may be enough for me.
Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.
Remember how long you’ve been putting these things off for, and how many respites you’ve received from the gods without making use of them. But now is the most necessary time of all to perceive what cosmos you are a part of, and what governor of the cosmos you exist as an emanation of, and that you have a limit of circumscribed time which, if you do not use it to clear away the clouds, will be gone, and you will be gone, and it will not be possible again.
January 25 is a date I have noted on the flyleaf of my copy of “24 hours a day”, by Richmond Walker.
Meditation for the Day
I believe that complete surrender of my life to God is the foundation of serenity. God has prepared for us many mansions. I do not look upon that promise as referring only to the after-life. I do not look upon this life as something to be struggled through, in order to get the rewards of the next life. I believe that the Kingdom of God is within us and we can enjoy “eternal life” here and now.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may try to do God’s will. I pray that such understanding, insight, and vision shall be mine as shall make my life eternal, here and now.
