“Help our response, Lord, not to be, "WHAT are You doing?!" Instead, give us the perspective to ask, "Lord, what would You teach?”

“Make us, Lord, in Chesterton's distinction, travelers instead of tourists. Where the tourist defines his day by the expectation of seeing certain things, give us the traveler's openness to seeing what You will reveal.”

“Help our response, Lord, not to be, "WHAT are You doing?!" Instead, give us the perspective to ask, "Lord, what would You teach?”

“Do we have Your Mark 10:39 faith that You will complete what You have begun in us? Or, do we look at our faltering desires and despair or excuse? Let us, Lord Jesus, hear Your Word over us more clearly and emphatically than we hear our own projections. Our predictions come from walking by sight, and they are SO often wrong that we ought to abandon them out of sheer practicality.”

“Why study what the world thinks? I believe this practice will actually make us more gracious and merciful. Engaged in interactions with worldlings, we are likely to see each person and each situation individually and to allow them to infuriate us. But, stepping back to see the world's pattern of thought rather than a particular instance in which we are wronged, we can gain perspective. By seeing this lost person's dealings as another example of blindness to Your Truth and of what Paul calls vain imaginations, we are more likely to turn our assertiveness to prayer rather than maneuvering for human advantage.”