Pleasing God

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

--Thomas Merton

This prayer from Merton is beautiful. I came across it while reading Plastic Jesus a few years ago. I love and also believe the line "But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you." There is so much that we have wrong. Much of what we think we have right may actually be polar opposite of the truth. And that is exactly why we need God's Amazing Grace.

Let us strive to please God and praise God for the grace that will carry us through.