Only

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Tonight was the last of our Wednesday Lenten services. We have been using Holden Evening Prayer - and we say this pray towards the end of the service.

I have always liked this prayer. Something about the way the words flow. The way they sound. The pauses between the phrases, like breathing deeply. I do not think I would change a single phrase or a single word.

The words that jump out at me most are "but only." There is so much going on around us, so much uncertainty. The only thing we know with any certainty is that God is there with us on the journey.

I had a brief conversation with a colleague the other day at a meeting I scheduled for volunteers who will be leading a world hunger lock-in this summer for youth. We had just finished playing a game of Monopoly - a simulation game where it demonstrates that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We both commiserated over the fact that life today really seems worse. "I've never seen it this bad," he said to me. "And I don't think it has anything to do with my age." At the moment, I agreed.

But, I did not (and do not) stay in that "dark place" very long. I know there have been difficult days in the past; there will be difficult days in the future. There are always "unknown perils." And - what if. What if the days are growing more dangerous, more grim?

I only have to say the last sentence of this prayer; these words really get to me, deep into the core of my being:  We do not know where we go, "but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us."

I do not need much more than that. That is the only comfort I need!