My Lord, God, the awful burden I feel in ageing is that I am your useless servant. My body is lumpish and clumsy, its beauty gone; I am stiff on my thickened legs, and cannot speed about serving others and you. My thoughts seem not to come out clearly, and I irritate others by my slowness in speech and decision and action. And Lord so many of my family and friends aren’t here any more – I look about me and it’s lonely, Lord. The past was full of laughter and companionship and hope and energy and service. Now my world has contracted to this small space, O Lord, I’m little use to you, and a burden to others.
So help me, Lord. Help me to bear it graciously. Help me to remember the past not with nostalgia but with thankfulness.
Help me:
- To suffer diminishments of body and mind and activity with humor and detachment;
- To offer the gifts of old age: time, leisure, quiet, tolerance, understanding and love, to your glory and the service of others, by using them in the way I still can, in praying and in caring;
- To accept dependency graciously when it must come, letting it remind me that I have always been utterly dependent on you;
- Never to criticize when I can praise;
- Never to complain when I can thank;
- Never to despair when I can hope;
- And to offer these to you and others for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Ruth Etchells: Just As I am: Personal Prayers for every Day, p.168
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