Prayers in Easter: If only

   It is the very
pursuit 

of happiness 

that 

   thwarts happiness. 

― Viktor E. Frankl* [1905-1997]

Well, God,

        where did some of us get the idea that happiness is our birthright? We spend so very much of our lives chasing after it and even worrying about how to get it. How many of us have said: If I can just have that car, if we can live in that neighborhood, if that promotion comes through, if I can win the big lottery, then I'll be happy. We waste life looking back crying about "if only ___ had been different" and looking ahead thinking "if only ___ that can happen" that we completely miss today. I want to stop missing now by spending my time trying to change the past and imagine the future.  Please, Lord, help me see the moment I'm in as the place to fully be and live with whatever is happening. 

         As the child who finds magic in blowing the seeds of a dandelion into the breeze, let me experience the present as the fruit of the past and the seeds of the future, completely grounded in You and completely in right now. amen.    

*Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, was interned in the Nazi Holocaust of concentration camps for three years losing his wife, his mother, and his brother.  His seminal work, Man's Search for Meaning, chronicles his imprisonment.  The translated German title is Saying Yes to Life in Spite of Everything: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp. It was through this unimaginable time he realized the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence even under the most difficult and even horrible experiences and find reasons to continue to live.  His work has inspired the psychological community from that time forward and just everyday people.




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