How has your day been?

King Hezekiah has about as bad a day as you can get in today's first reading (from Isaiah 38):

In those days,
when Hezekiah was mortally ill,
the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz,
came and said to him:

"Thus says the LORD:
Put your house in order,
for you are about to die;
you shall not recover."

(At this point, if this were a hit television show, a goofy song would suddenly start playing:

"You had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song
just to turn it around")

Hezekiah's bad day, of course, is very bad and the grief of his heart is practically inexpressible, but he does not fatalistically give up or try to ignore his situation: instead, he confronts everything with deep, emotional honesty and – most importantly – with faith.

By the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may you and I confront all of our days – good and bad – with the same emotional honesty in our prayer and with the same unconquerable faith.

"O LORD,
remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly
I conducted myself in your presence,
doing what was pleasing to you!"

And Hezekiah wept bitterly....

"You have folded up my life,
like a weaver who severs the last thread.

"Day and night you give me over to torment;
I cry out until the dawn.

"Like a lion he breaks all my bones;
(day and night you give me over to torment).

"Like a swallow I utter shrill cries;
I moan like a dove.

"My eyes grow weak,
gazing heavenward:
O Lord, I am in straits;
be my surety!

* * * * * * *

"You have preserved my life
from the pit of destruction,
When you cast behind your back all my sins.

"For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks,
nor death that praises you;
Neither do those who go down into the pit
await your kindness.

"The living, the living give you thanks,
as I do today.

"Fathers declare to their sons, O God,
your faithfulness.

"The LORD is our savior;
we shall sing to stringed instruments
In the house of the LORD
all the days of our life."