God of history and of my heart,

    so much has happened to me

during these whirlwind days:

 

    I’ve known death and birth;

    I’ve been brave and scared:

    I’ve hurt, I’ve helped;

    I’ve been honest. I’ve lied;

    I’ve destroyed, I’ve created;

    I’ve been with people; I’ve been lonely;

    I’ve been loyal, I’ve betrayed;

    I’ve decided, I’ve waffled;

    I’ve laughed and I’ve cried.

    You know my frail heart and my frayed history

    and now another day begins.

    O God, help me to believe in beginnings

    and in my beginning again,

    no matter how often I’ve failed before.

 

    Help me to make beginnings:

            to begin going out of my weary mind

          into fresh dreams,

            daring to make my own bold tracks

        in the land of now;

 

        that I may experience mercy;

 

            to begin questioning the unquestionable

            that I may know truth;

 

            to begin disciplining

            that I may create beauty;

 

            to begin sacrificing

            that I may make peace;

 

            to begin loving

            that I may realize joy.

 

    Help me to be a beginning for others,

    to be a singer to the songless,

              a storyteller to the aimless,

              a befriender to the friendless;

              to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,

              of assurance for the doubting,

              of reconciliation for the divided;

              to become a beginning of beauty to the forlorn,

              of sweetness for the soured,

              of gentleness for the angry,

              of wholeness for the broken,

              of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.

 

    Help me to believe in beginnings,

    to make a beginning,

    to be a beginning,

    so that I may not just grow old, but grow new

    each day of this wild, amazing life

    you call me to live with the passion of Jesus Christ.

Amen.