The Most Important Thing You'll Do this Week

Plus prayer of the week

Last night, I held a loved one while she cried torrents of tears. The situation that hurts her so has no obvious or immediate solution, no easy consolation. There was nothing else I could do except be present with her in her pain and anguish, to feel those emotions with her and to let her know without words, I’m here, and I love you.

And I was made aware in that moment, perhaps by a whisper from heaven, that this was the most important thing I would do this week. More important than going to work, more important than writing a Substack essay, more important than staying abreast of the news or any of the things society demands of me.

In my neck of the woods, the vibes this week are thick with frustration and anxiety about the election, a fear-based event. I reckon if you live in the United States, you’re feeling that, too. We’re dealing not only with fears on both sides of the aisle about what the outcome will be, but also fears on both sides of retaliation against the outcome.

And so, although society demands that the most important thing any of us can do this week is to vote, I beg to differ. On Wednesday morning we will all wake up and still be in a world of mixed beauty and ugliness, sorrow and joy. The only difference will be that a new guy or gal will be slated to take up residence in the White House come January.

Whoever the new president is, he or she can’t create easy or immediate solutions for complex domestic and international problems. He or she can’t mend the rift between you and your neighbor, or plant the seeds in your community that will flourish into good fruit in five or ten years. He or she will not hold your loved one while they cry. Only you can do that.

So my advice—take it or leave it—is to cast your vote, or not, as you see fit, and then to forget about it. Ask yourself, ask God, what is the most important thing I will do this week? And go do it.

This week’s prayer is not my own output. You may already know it, especially if you are Catholic or Episcopalian, or if you’ve been around the 12-step circuits a time or two. It is my favorite prayer for daily use. It reminds me that no matter what happens outside of me, I can experience God’s blessing best by being a blessing to those around me. By de-centering my opinions, desires, and judgments, I actually become more truly myself. It doesn’t mean I won’t have opinions, desires, and judgments, it just means that they are ancillary to my prime purpose for being here on this planet Earth with y’all, which is to see the light in all God’s works, and to reflect it back.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
And it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

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