Megan's prayer: Chris Tomlin's "Rejoice"

I was reading the book "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs today. In this book, he attempts to follow all of the rules or guidelines of the Bible literally for an entire year. It's quite interesting, and sometimes humorous, to hear of the things that he ends up doing.

One of the little rituals that Jacobs finds himself doing during the day is to constantly be saying "Thank you." Whether it's to the people around him, or giving thanks to God for the things happening in his life. He claims that saying "thank you" almost becomes an obsession of his.

While I was reading this, I was trying to decide if this is a bad thing. While it may get a bit tiresome to hear someone *constantly* saying "thank you" throughout the day, I feel like it would help remind me of just how blessed I am. Too often I forget to say "thank you" for the little things I take for granted.

Similarly tonight, Tomlin says "again I say rejoice." Rejoicing weekly at Mass isn't enough. Rejoicing should be a constant thing, something that we find our self doing constantly, not just when someone reminds us to say it again.

Chris' prayer: Chris Tomlin's "Rejoice"

Today was not a good day for me. Just coming off of a wonderful trip, I was happy to have zero stress. But that didn't last at all. My car is acting up, and I feel lucky just to make it home tonight without it overheating and being stranded on the side of the highway. I spent the better part of my evening absolutely consumed by stress, worrying about how I was going to get to work, or pay for the repairs, or pay for an entirely new (at least to me) car. A day removed from the trip, and my stress level is higher than ever.

In the midst of this, though, I discovered exactly what I have to do to take the next step in my relationship with God. If I want to deepen that, to more fully rely on Him, the ultimate act would be to surrender this over to Him. To run the risk of not being able to get to work, or not be able to afford the repair bills or the cost of a new car, and just trust Him with that. If I was able to do that, I feel like I could turn [my] sorrow into singing.


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Jen's prayer: Chris Tomlin's "Rejoice"

Only You can satisfy

So often I think "If only I could do this..." or "If only I had this..." and THEN I would be satisfied. But that isn't true. It's a downfall of humans to think we'll be satisfied when we get more money or when we get married or when we're done with school...the list goes on. The only time I feel satisfied, though, is when I'm close to the Lord and following Him. And I just pray that I can continue to realize that is how I will be satisfied and the only way.

Katie's prayer: Chris Tomlin's "Rejoice"

See the morning, see it rising
Over the mountains high
See the mercy in the mighty hand of God

For some reason, the past few days it's been really hard to wake up. I've been wanting a little more sleep. 'Just a little more!' I tell myself as I hit that snooze button again and again and again. Instead of telling myself it's another beautiful day that God made just for me, I've been telling myself it's another day, another day I have to get up out of bed and do stuff when I'd rather be sleeping. Maybe it's cause I haven't said morning prayer since Wednesday! ahh! It's been almost a week! I pray that God might help me tomorrow to:

Turn [my] sorrow into singing
The song of life
Rejoice, Rejoice