The Best Prayer You Can Pray

A simple prayer mentioned during a homily helped Jennifer Lindberg open a door to deeper trust in God.

A holy monk, St. Isaac the Syrian, said, “Make peace with yourself and both heaven and earth will make peace with you.”

It sounds simple, but this peace is often at odds in an anxious world full of ideas that might not be God’s will for us or distract us from living our vocations. We worry about a lot of things that will never happen and fail to realize we are embraced by the strongest grace of Christ’s love. A wise saying like St. Issacs’s still begs the question, “How do we make peace with ourselves?” I believe it is from one simple prayer: “Jesus, let me be who you want me to be.”

Praying like that is some sort of freedom. I don’t have to do it all, or make all the choices, if I let God lead. If I’m praying for Christ’s creating hand over my clay pot to make it a masterpiece, I can rest and trust that what happens to me is within God’s Providence. This simple prayer came from my priest’s homily, opening a door to deeper trust in God.

That potter representing God, the Father, takes an ugly gray clump of clay and transforms it, cutting here, shortening it there, and turning it constantly until it is put into the fire, burning away my deficiencies, vices, and worries into something stunning in its beauty. It reminds me of a practice in Japan. If a dish breaks it’s glued together with gold. The broken pieces are not thrown away, they are transformed. It is some of the most beautiful pottery in the world known as Kintsugi.

Kintsugi bowl with cracks repaired in gold

It’s like this brokenness of ours can still be made into something new because God’s mercies are new every day. It reminds me that sufferings, disappointments, hurts, wrongs, and unanswered prayers can be pieced back together with God’s greatest attribute: mercy. I just have to let God pick up the pieces and be at peace knowing I’m in good hands.

Jesus, let me be who you want me to be.

It’s a bold prayer when we are wanting to be something less, or something below our dignity that is leading us to sin, or waywardness. It’s a bolder prayer when we are so sure of something, but will ask in humility, “Jesus, is this right and good for me? Is this what you want me to be?” That’s the peace surpassing understanding when we surrender to Christ’s providence for our life.

David was a shepherd boy, ruddy to look at, who became a great king because he took sticks from a tree to make a slingshot, and stones from a creek that defeated a giant spewing hate. David said I’ll defeat this evil in the name of God. Esther risked her life to save her people. Ruth clung to her mother-in-law refusing to throw away the heritage of the Jews, and ended up being a relative to Christ. Mary Magdalene washed Christ’s feet with her tears, becoming one of the greatest evangelizers who ever lived. Each of these people asked God what He wanted them to be, so that generations later Christ would come and make all things new.

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Every ‘yes’ to God sometimes starts with a ‘no’ to something else. #catholicmom

Every ‘yes’ to God sometimes starts with a ‘no’ to something else. These people may have wanted or chosen for themselves something different until God’s grace entered into their life. Some of them might have wanted to stay in their sin, but they learned to repent and be healed. They knew God could take the pieces of their lives, shards of broken dreams, and make it into everlasting joy.

We can do that too by praying: “Jesus, let me be who you want me to be.”

Pray it in good times. Pray it in bad times. Pray it when there are major decisions facing you. Pray it and feel at peace with yourself and then the words of one holy monk will enter into your life with a golden thread of grace.

woman praying next to a lake