Small Beginnings

What makes for a “good day”? For me it starts with prayer.

This morning I awoke early. My thoughts started down the path of planning all I had to do and I started to feel anxious… How easy it is for me at that point to get out of bed and go to work!

Instead, as CS Lewis described so aptly, I shoved back all those “wild animals” and began to pray! I laid in bed. I grabbed an ancient little prayer and held on for dear life!

“Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!”

“Have mercy on me, O Lord” is how Psalm 51 begins, my Psalm for the morning. This is s a favorite Centering Prayer of mine.

As I laid in bed I slowly breathed in and out the words: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.” I confessed my sins. I submitted each aspect of my day to God. I interceded for people I’ll be interacting with today.

And I’m shooting up little “arrow prayers” today: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!”

A simple prayer of the heart in the morning is a small doorway to a good day. It’s like the door to the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem that leads to the sacred site of the birth of Christ. I’ll never forget stooping down so low to get into this ancient church that shelters the holy ground where Jesus first touched the earth.

The same little prayer can “rebuild” a day that’s not going well. The prophet Zechariah teaches that small beginnings are crucial to great successes. It was his encouragement along these lines that helped the Israelites to complete the rebuilding of their temple after they returned from captivity in Babylon (Zechariah 4:10).