Holy God, 
 
Your piercing light shines through the darkness.  
 
Even in the times when darkness threatens to overtake us, you are there.  
 
Your presence invades like a laser, piercing us and permanently changing our hearts, minds, and wills.  
 
Or sometimes, you show yourself as a burning candle, warming the air around it and casting glows of dancing sparks on receptive surfaces. 
 
In these moments, we truly know that nothing is impossible with you, 

The God of miracles!  
 
You show us that we were created to reveal you to a world so dark.  
 
Lord, Holy One, may our lives be so transformed by your heart-warming presence that we would see ourselves as you see us, both in our beauty and in our frailty.  The steps may yet be unclear, but may we be open to the places where your light and your Spirit will compel us to go.  
 
And may we be open to those places yet unknown to us where we will be led by your Spirit, your Word, and your Truth.  
 
Amen.
 
 
Ashlee Alley is the Director of Campus Ministry at Southwestern College, a United Methodist affiliated college in Winfield, Kansas.  She is a provisional deacon in the Kansas West Conference of The United Methodist Church. You can read her blog, “A Long Obedience…”, at http://ashleealley.blogspot.com.