God, I don't want to live falsely, in self-imposed prisons and fixed,
comfortable patterns that confine my soul and diminish the truth in me.
So much of me has gone underground.
I want to let my soul out.
I want to be free to risk what's true, to be myself.

Set free the daring in me…
the willingness to go within, to see the self-lies.
I'll try to run away, but don't let me.
Set me on a journey toward wholeness.

I'm scared, God. Make me brave.
Lead me into the enormous spaces of becoming.
Help me see your face shining in the night of my own soul.
Help me to break free and risk becoming the person you created me to be.

Tomorrow I may regret these words, but tonight I speak them,
for I know that you're somewhere inside them…
I know you love me and won't leave me alone in their echo.

(Adapted from a prayer by Sue Monk Kidd)