What if Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer so that we'd have something to cling to? To center our thoughts upon? To ground our emotions? Something to guide us when life's circumstances insist we merge? Understood in this way, the Lord's Prayer becomes the framework for our thoughts. It calms while lying awake at night, redirects while waiting for a train, leads in the face of terror, and connects us to a God who is near. What if God gives us permission to ask that we not face difficulty?
