Meditations on the Divine Will

Sometime around 1862 in the midst of the Civil War Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter he never intended to send to anyone. He penned private thoughts as he sought to make sense of a reality well beyond the comprehension of any one man. The letter has come to be known by the title, "Meditations on the Divine Will." The following exert is a powerful word for our day:

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordinance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against, te same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible the God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purspose."

There is a sense where prayers guided by any intention that has even a hint self-seeking has less chance of aligning with best. Good people always want things. Does that make the things they want "good"? I think Mr. Lincoln wrestled hard through the morality of the war he waged. Though he hated to fight, he found it was the only way to preserve what he saw as divinely sanctioned. So he engaged war as a necessary thing. Though he maintained a humility that allowed him to stand as a monumental person in history for attaining the "impossible".

That's the part of the story that I love: making possible what is perceived as not possible. Something in the posture of Lincoln that made it reality. That's worth pursuing.