Take charge of the things you can control,
and don’t worry about the things you can’t.
-Dr. Henry Cloud

One of the things I have known about myself for quite some time now is that it’s not easy for me to be here.

Even when things are going well, I tend to think about where I wish was or what I wish I had. Dreaming about the future is good in moderation. But oftentimes I do it so much that I neglect to ground myself in gratitude.

Similarly, when things are hard, I distract myself. I turn to social media. I replay scenarios in my head. I think about how I wish God would help me, but I neglect to actually pray or do anything to help myself. I neglect to be here. I fail to remember that God is here — right smack dab in the middle of the mess with me.

I wrote this prayer when social distancing and quarantine were still new and confusing ways of being. While they’re no longer new, they’re still confusing. The unknowns are uncomfortable, and if you’re like me, you want to escape. But maybe one of the ways God can work this awful thing out for our good is that he will teach us to be here. To come to him here. To meet him here.

Last spring, Dan and I went on a self-guided retreat at a retreat center in Michigan. While we were there, we each met with a spiritual director. During Dan’s session, he expressed frustration with his prayer life admitting that he often didn’t know how to connect to God in the traditional church-y ways.

“Sometimes,” the spiritual director said, “all that’s needed is a prayer of being here.”

Just sit down and let God know you’re here, and that is enough.

This prayer has been a grounding force for me over the last few months so I wanted to share it in this space. May it draw you into the presence of God that is already all around you. I addressed my payer to “Father God,” but feel free to insert the name of God that best reflects what you need God to be right now.

A Prayer for Here

Father, God* (inhale)

Help me be here (exhale)

.

Father God (inhale)

Help me be here (exhale)

.

This world is crazy right now

There are so many needs

I am worried

I am scared (insert your own feeling words)

I want to help, but often feel like I can’t

Help me know what is mine to control, and help me release what I can’t

Is there someone in my immediate circle who needs my help?

Is there an organization I can give to, to help others in my community?

Bring those things to mind, and everything else —

I release control

.

I release control

.

I release my need to control others

to control my emotions,

to control outcomes,

I release it all to you
(open your hands in front of you as if you’re setting something on a table).

.

Father, God (inhale)

I am here (Exhale)

.

I am here!

.

And so are you.

.

I’m here in this house

In this hospital

In this apartment

In this car

.

I am here in this sadness

In this worry

In this gratitude

In this fear

.

I am here

.

And so are you

.

(Inhale…

(Exhale…)

(Siit silently for a minute. Let the words linger lightly as you breath)

I am here,

And so are you

.

Amen.

I also wanted to put this prayer on my phone to help me when I needed to pray. So… I put it on a phone background and then created a few more options in case that’s something you would find helpful too.