O God, I Need Thee
This prayer is being featured for three weeks. This is the second section.

I Need Thy Sense of Order
  The confusion of the details of living
  Is sometimes overwhelming. The little things
  Keep getting in my way providing ready-made
  Excuses for failure to do and be
  What I know I ought to do and be.
  Much time is spent on things that are not very important
  While significant things are put into an insignificant place
  In my scheme of order. I must unscramble my affairs
  So that my life will become order. O God, I need
        Thy sense of order.

  —   Howard Thurman  (1951)
Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans, James Melvin Washington, Ph.D. Editor, 1994

Howard Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) was an American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements of the twentieth century. He was the author of many books including Jesus and the Disinherited, 1949.

James Melvin Washington was an expert on Black American religious history, an educator, and a minister from Knoxville, Tennessee. He published Frustrated Fellowship: The Black Baptist Quest for Social Power, in 1986.