Wednesday’s Reflection
“It Is As It Is” Prayer
ONE OF THE MORE DIFFICULT aspects of the spiritual life is balancing honesty and hope. Obviously, it is psychologically healthy to feel the pain when we have been injured inside or outside or our lives have been permanently altered. But when do we decide to move on? to discontinue our recitation of how wounded we are? to shift the energy from what happened to us to what we can do now? It’s easier to stay wounded than to heal. No one can be healed for us. The healing must come to us through us.
This prayer invites us to stop our downward spiral of victim talk with a simple phrase to break the pattern: “It is as it is.” We insert the phrase into our thoughts anytime we become aware that we are revisiting the negative thoughts. This practice can provide the impetus to shift from pain to possibility and plunge us right smack into the present moment. Yesterday’s history can’t be rewritten, but this prayer can at least open our hearts to tomorrow’s hope.
- Linda Douty
Praying in the Messiness of Life
From page 84 of Praying in the Messiness of Life: 7 Ways to Renew Your Relationship with God by Linda Douty. Copyright © 2011 by Linda Douty. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
Think about the statement, “it is as it is.” Share your reflections.
Today’s Scripture Reading
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