a blessing for when you feel like the world rests on your shoulders

God, I know that what I am trying to carry
is far too much,
but Ii don’t know what else to do

O God help me.

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.

Come to me all you
who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 NIV

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.

Blessed are we who say,
Jesus, I’m taking You at Your word.
I am coming to You just as I am,
almost worn out, craving rest,
but still tempted to keep going like i always do,
propelled from one task to the next
as if the world depended on it.
But I know this can’t go on,
for this kind of energy is a harsh driver.

Blessed are we, quietly closing the door,
willing to fold ourselves into the small space
that is the present moment,
and trust that it is Your desire, o God,
that we no longer be driven, but led.

So God, slow me down.
Place Your hand on me
and calm the beating of my heart,
deepen my breathing and quiet my mind
so I can catch up with myself,
and feel what I feel, know what I know,
and remember whose world it is
that is holding me up,
and not the other way around.

For “Before the mountains were born
or You brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting,
You are God.” Psalm 90:2

And suddenly it is the truest thing in the world
that this small enclosure
with You here is the spacious place
where little is enough,
and I know in a new way
that not everything has to be done,
and not everything has to be done by me.
and I begin to see that it is my limits
as well as my gifts that can shape
the natural contours of what is mine to hold,
and mine to do.

It is the narrowness of the riverbanks,
after all, that gives strength to the river.
Rob Des Cotes