Hope for the IncarceratedSample

How are you with anxiety? Do you deal with it frequently? Maybe you haven’t yet been sentenced and struggle with maintaining peace in the midst of that uncertainty. Maybe you just don’t really know what the next day will hold for you. Maybe your family situation is too chaotic to let you rest with peace.

We all deal with uncertainty and anxiety. We like to know what’s next and we tend not to really enjoy ambiguity. If that rings true to you, here’s a prayer by Stanley Hauerwas that might resonate:

“True God of All Truths, how we desire certainty amid the confusion of our lives. We think we could make it if we just had one thing we could know without doubt, one way to be that was not ambiguous, one other we could unreservedly trust. Yet all such knowledge, being, and trust too often reflect our desperation rather than your glory. We pray, therefore, not for certainty but for joy at the discernment that you have discovered us and given us a way to go on in the midst of confusion. What more could we ask? Amen.”

Meditate on the words of this prayer today and discover whether you can have joy even in the midst of your uncertainty.