Why pray?

 

Been thinking some more about this and re-reading Chapter 5 of In Constant Prayer.  Here’s some more from the book:

Do no misunderstand me; I do not believe that saying these prayers is about our salvation.  Saying theses prayers is not about qualifying to be in that number when the saints go marching in or out or wherever it is that we are headed for eternity.

But going to church on Sunday, bringing our kids to church, paying our tithes, feeding the poor or taking care of the orphans in South America are not about salvation either.  Those things are about the way we live our lives, here and about whether we do the things that we are given to do to help be sure that Christ, through his body can actually be seen here on earth at all.

When I say that these prayers are not elective, I mean what if some of us are being drawn to say these prayers not to save ourselves but to save the whole world? Or to save the Church? what if we are being called to help restore this ancient prayer as a way to strengthen and sustain the Church in our time, as it strengthened and sustained the church in its earliest days? {page 69, 70}

 

And continuing in that line of thinking {page72, 73}:

I am increasingly convinced that if the Church is to live, and actually be alive, one of the reasons, maybe the most important and maybe even the only reason, will be because we have taken up our place in the line of the generations of the faithful who came before us.  It will be because we pray the prayer that Christ himself prayed when e walked among us and now longs to prayer through us.

 

Still diggin',

More On Prayer, From “In Constant Prayer”

 

The paradox of worship is this: we perform these acts of worship, but they are not actually for us.  We do these things for God and then we are the ones who are changed.

We offer our songs of praise, and we are the ones who are moved to joy.  We offer our thanksgivings, and we are the ones who are blessed by them.  We over the ancient prayers of the psalms, and we are the ones who begin to hear “the prayer of God that rises in our hears,” as my friend Father Edward Farrell says.  We offer the gifts of bread and wine in the Eucharist, and we are the ones who are fed and strengthened. {page 48}

In today’s ME society, I don’t think we really get this; so many people, me included, just don’t do things for the sake of doing them anymore.  If I don’t get anything immediate out of it, why would I continue doing it?  Why would I fake it until I make it?  Why would I get out of my comfort zone and just try it?  We want perfect praise and worship in our churches, but the praise and worship isn’t about us, at least it’s not supposed to be.  Our offerings of praise are for our Lord and our God.  If we don’t, the Bible says that all creation will!

I have misunderstood prayer all my life, I think.  It’s not that my teachers and parents didn’t try and didn’t do a good job of explaining it.  They used acronyms such as ACTS – adoration, confession, thankfulness, supplication.  Or something like that.  But it didn’t stick.  What was the purpose?!?!  God KNOWS all that!  God is God; why does He need our prayers?  And yes, I even learned that prayer was for me.  I heard that prayer was a conversation with God, to build our relationship.  I get that.  I can pray like that.  I guess.

This liturgy of prayer – this praying at specific times each day – why would we?  Right?  The author provides a number of comparisons, but this one came to mind for me.  Praying the hours is inconvenient (much like taking a weekly Sabbath is inconvenient); in today’s busy-ness getting together with a specific friend, or having a weekly date night with my husband may be inconvenient, but it’s so necessary.  Lately these scheduled times of talking with Jason have been missing (until the last few days) but Jason has been making an effort to call me away from whatever I’m doing to just sit and talk to him.  Now, it’s not at set times of day, but the principle is the same – we are MAKING time in our busy family life to just be together and talk.  I think that’s the least we can do for our God – be specific and purposeful in our meetings with Him.

My prayer life has been so hit and miss.  I say I’ll pray for people, and I do.  I’ll ask for this and ask for that.  Very often my prayers are in exasperation – “LORD, help me not throttle this child!” or “God, you gotta deal with Jason, cuz I sure can’t right now!”  I don’t want my prayer life to be only supplication.  I want the other aspects in there too.

The author goes on to say in another chapter that we plan everything in our lives (to some degree) but we don’t plan our prayer life.  If you want something to happen, you plan it.  Vacation. To do lists abound! Housekeeping even.  Is prayer on your to do list?  It hasn’t really been on mine.  So if we are so methodical and so organized with all other aspects of our lives, why not set aside specific times of prayer?

Other reviews of this book have been critical of the content, because no specific scriptures are given in support of this but there are a number of passages that come to mind.  Daniel and his friends continued their prayers even in Babylon, did they not?  The author of “In Constant Prayer” also mentions that Jesus and his disciples were often praying a specific times.

I love this, from pages 54 and 55:

Sometimes it seems we have convinced ourselves that even though we are expecting God to work in mysterious ways on our behalf, our call to offer praise and worship to the One who made us is the sort of thing that can be taken care of once a week in an hour or so between the Sunday school hour and the Sunday buffet.

The call that comes to us from the tradition of the daily office, the call that comes to us from the untold millions of the faithful who went before us, suggests something else altogether.  It suggests that we are to worship God as much as we are to petition God.

I believe that God does call us to be intentional in our daily lives and not just fly by the seat of your pants.  I have been learning that over and over for a number of years.  I don’t know why our prayer life would be any different.

Still diggin',

In Constant Prayer

 

I am loving this book.  It is not quite what I was expecting.  But I am excited about it.  I know I have spoken with a friend or two about my frustrations with prayer and that’s why I chose this book to review (the formal review will be on Just Our Thoughts).  I wanted some more insight.  This book is part of a series called The Ancient Practices; Sabbath, the last book I talked about here, was also from that series.  I loved that book and learned a lot; I am applying much of it from my life, slowly.  I want to develop habits and make the practice meaningful in my life, so I must move slowly.  I feel the same process will need to be taken with this book as well.  Slow and steady!

 

This way of prayer – the prayer that has sustained the life of the faithful for centuries – has a way of sneaking up on you and not letting go. Which is what often happens when we come in contact with God. Communion with God is several things – predictable is not one of them. {page 11}

 

I found the above passage to be true in my studying of the weekly sabbath!  Here’s another passage that hit me.  I am learning, and I guess I always knew it, that we, as modern Christians, don’t pray enough, or correctly.  Now, I get that there is really no correct or wrong way.  But there is a better way, maybe.  A way that will get us closer to and in a better relationship with our Lord and Savior.  I want to find and learn and do that better way.  Here’s the passage from page 25:

 

In a very different context, the singer Michelle Shocked once said, ‘Politics and are are too important to be left to the professionals." This is not a jab at professionals; it is a call to amateurs.

The daily prayer of God’s people – the divine office, the liturgy of the hours, the work of God, morning and evening prayer, whatever name you want to use for it – is too important to be left to the professionals anyway. {page 25}

 

The topic of this book is the liturgy of prayer, the practice taken from Psalm 119 to prayer seven times a day.  The ancients set up seven specific times of day, or hours.  The traditional hours are: daybreak, before the workday begins, noon, midafternoon, sundown, before bed and midnight.  These are not commands by God, to pray at these times, but what a great idea.  The author of In Constant Prayer goes on to say on page 30 that “there is plenty of freedom to choose a regimen that allows for the shape and pace and structure of our individual daily lives.”

 

Lastly, I love how friendly this author is.  The following quote made me chuckle, but it’s so true!  We serve a GREAT and MIGHTY and GRACIOUS God!

 

The One who has drawn you to begin will guide you as you go along.

“If you ask for bread, will you get a stone?  How much more then can you trust your heavenly Father?” Those words from the Son of God suggest to me that God’s answer to the petition “o Lord, open our lips” is not likely to be, “I am sorry; you picked the wrong prayer book, and you are saying them seventeen minutes too late each day.”

Pick a set of prayers and begin.  IF we can be trusted to work our our own salvation with fear and trembling, as Saint Paul once wrote that we must, we can probably be trusted to pick out a prayer book. {page 41-42}

 

Still diggin',

The Coming Celebration–Passover and Unleavened Bread

 

The more I study and read and learn the more I see how God’s plan for his people works for me in my life and in today’s society!  I’m just going to share some thoughts and tidbits of information.

 

Passover requires a ridding of leavening from our homes.  Crumbs hide everywhere!  God commands a spring cleaning.  So neat!

 

Earlier I shared a passage from Exodus that gives the command and instructions regarding Passover.  I didn’t realize it was a seven day celebration “wrapped” in two Sabbath days.  I didn’t realize it was for all generations, forever.  (gonna do some more digging on that – the forever part – is the same word in the original languages as when Jesus talks about never changing, etc)

 

Leading up to the Passover were the nine other plagues of Egypt.  Passover is a time of remembering the Israelites being set free; this is a freedom celebration.

 

I have not rid my home of leavening; I will not be able to do so before Passover starts unfortunately; I need to set myself a reminder for next year because it will take quite some time for me to accomplish this.  For this year, I am taking a baby step.  I am learning about Passover and what it means and the traditions around it.  I plan to teach my children about what Passover is all about.  I plan to connect Jesus as our Passover Lamb and why Easter is celebrated during Passover.  I want to move to celebrating Passover and not Easter.  Passover is the celebration of freedom, not just for the Israelites but for us as well; freedom from our sinful nature through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

 

Traditionally, the first day of Passover would be the feast day.  I have not yet decided when we will have our Easter / Passover dinner.  Jason may be away that weekend, so having our special dinner on the night of the 19th might not a bad idea.  It works.

 

Lent is done when Easter begins.  Lent is a time of fasting or abstinence or giving something up, in preparation of the celebrating of Jesus’ resurrection.  Lent is instituted by man.  Passover is instituted by God.  Jesus’ death and resurrection happen during Passover that year.

 

Still diggin',

Thinking On Scripture

In regards to Passover:

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
(Exodus 12:14-20 ESV)

FOREVER. Hmm.  (emphasis mine, above)

 

Still diggin',

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

     Doubting God’s goodness, distrusting His intent, discontented with what He’s given, we desire . . . I have desired . . . more.  The fullest life.

     I look across farm fields.  The rest of the garden simply isn’t enough. It will never be enough.  God said humanity was not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  And I moan that God has ripped away what I wanted.  No, what I needed.  Though I can hardly whisper it, I live as though He stole what I consider rightly mine; happiest children, marriage of unending bliss, long content, death-defying days.  I look in the mirror, and if I’m fearlessly blunt – what I have, who I am, where I am, how I am, what I’ve got – this simply isn’t enough.  That forked tongue darts and daily I live the doubt, look at my reflection, and ask: Does God really love me? If He truly, deeply loves me, why does He withhold that which I believe will fully nourish me?  Why do I live in the this sense of rejection, of less than, of pain?  Does He not want me to be happy?

Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, Chapter 1

 

 

Still diggin',

What If Your Best . . .What is God’s best for us

 

I used to find this song annoying when I heard it on the TV, until I listened to the words and got thinking about it a little a lot.

What if HIS best for us doesn’t look like we expect it to look like?

What If Your Best by FFH

I'm trying hard to keep from falling off this wheel
Trying hard to keep so still
As you’re shaping, and remaking
Something new is bound to surface
Something bound to bring you fame
Something sure to make you great
Something you can use
But I am only clay and clay doesn't get to choose

I want your best but what if your best is brokenness
Would I be broken?
I want your best but what if less than what I ask
And what I'm hoping?
What if your best is here in the waiting, here in the going thru the motions?
I'll still be trusting all I am, and all have, and nothing less to Potter's hands

I'm trying hard to keep from giving you advice
It’s like teaching Shakespeare how to write
Or Monet, the way to paint another scene
But there's just something in this amateur that thinks
That my opinion's what you need
On how to work in me
But I am only clay, and clay probably shouldn't speak

Chorus

Take my life and let it be consecrated just to thee
Take my voice and let me sing for you my King
Take my moments and my days and let them flow in ceaseless praise
For You always, for You

Chorus

Only here for you to mould, I'm holding on, because I belong in Potter's hands

---

The part that got me the most was this:

I want your best but what if less than what I ask And what I'm hoping?
What if your best is here in the waiting, here in the going thru the motions?

Maybe, just maybe, HIS best for me is “going through the motions”.  It is going through the day by day by day.  My life may be a lot of work.  My life may be a lot of dirty diapers and scrapes and bruises.  My life may be sticky fingers and runny noses.  On the days when my day to day to day takes over my JOY and my anger rides to the surface yet again, I try to remember that HE is in control and that HE wants the best for me.  I try to remember that I am the clay, being moulded into the person, the woman, the wife and mother that HE wants me to be; I will be HIS best for me, if I remember.

 

A close friend of mine and I were talking the other day.  She doesn’t often share lots from her past but the little snippets of her history that she shares always amaze me.  She came from a world of abuse and neglect.  I have nothing to compare the experiences to in my own life.  I see the woman she is today and I think to myself, “if God can change that woman . . . if God can show Himself through her . . . if she can show so much JOY and LOVE to those in her life after all the horrid things she experienced . . . if she can love herself, and be happy with who she is . . . if she can, then surely, I can!”  If God can do such a great work, and create such a beautiful person from those experiences, then surely, I can allow Him to work in me and do similar in my life and in my family.  Surely, I can be willing clay, in the Potter’s hands.

 

 

Still diggin',

Sabbath: Finding Time

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted on this blog.

 

The next section of Sabbath by Wayne Muller, I’m just going to share some quotes that I enjoyed.

All these “lost” values are human qualities that require time.  Honesty, courage, kindness,civility, wisdom, compassion – these can only be nourished in the soil of time and attention and need experience and practice to come to harvest. – page 98

Good citizenship requires time to listen to the fears and dreams of our neighbors, to care for our poor and hungry, to build and run good wholesome schools and hospitals.  Mark the steady decline in party membership, voter tallies, attendance at public meetings and school boards. – page 100

Finally, in the 1960s and 1970s mass amusements – notably television – began their domination of leisure time.  Passive culture consumption began to replace traditional activities.  Time for family, loved ones and community activities was no longer perceived as being as valuable as what one could buy with money.  - page 106

 

This next passage really hit me in light of the oil spill in the US. 

“Yet every time someone gets cancer, the G.D.P. goes up.  Every time an infant dies, the G.D.P. rises.  A drive-by shooting improves the economy by $20,750.  If the victim dies, and there is a murder trial, the benefit to the economy leaps to well over $100,000.  An oil tanker spill can contribute between five and twenty million dollars of “growth”; the benefits of an airline crash or terrorist bombing can be far greater.” – page 111

“A true marriage of money and time honors the value of both.  Both time and money are essential commodities for building a just and healthy world.  But during Sabbath, we specifically honor those precious things – courage, creativity, wisdom, peace, kindness, and delight – that grow only in the soil of time.” – page 116

So we have to make time for each other, to play, to teach, to just be together.  I am finding that as many of us enter this busy time of year surrounding Christmas that this is becoming more and more important to me.  I really want to carve out time for my family and for our close friends.

How does this work into my family’s Sabbath?  I’m gonna play games with the kids!  I’ll color with them.  I’ll read to them.  I’ll take the time to teach them virtues and precepts in Scripture.

 

Still diggin',

Being Intentional About Relationships

There is a situation that has come up got me thinking about being intentional about our relationships.  Especially the ones we really want to cultivate and don’t make a genuine effort to do so.  I mean, when I think about it, I spend more time with my online friends than I do with a lot of people in real life.  I have online friends that I speak with daily while there are local people that I don’t speak to for weeks at a time.  I don’t make the effort to call or stop by. 

 

And to those who are my online friends, I love you dearly and I am so thankful for my friendships with each one of you, but seriously, I think it is extremely important to spend time with the people in your community.  It’s extremely important to build a high level of intimacy with our church family (good sermon on Sunday about that).  And we just don’t do it.  I think it’s really sad that we are too busy to make time for one another in real life but we can carve time out of our day for people across the continent and across the world via twitter, facebook, email groups and instant messaging.

 

The issue that started this whole train of thought involves a relationship that I do not want to cultivate.  I want it to go away and I have every right to do so.  I believe the other parties feel the same, quite frankly but really it’s beyond  my control.  Anyway, I think good has come of this tough relationship in getting me thinking about getting out there in my community.  I have a desire to make time for those here in my real life, in my present life.  I want to start / keep building relationships here with people that I can help in a time or need, or who can help me in a similar situation.  My online friends can’t really do anything if I need immediate hands on help just like I can’t help them, except to pray.

 

My local friend, Tammy-Lee, whom I speak of often on Just Our Thoughts has helped push me in the direction of her and I making time for each other.  We have set aside two days a month where we will get together just to spend the afternoon and do nothing.  Or we pick a project.  Or we just sit and visit and let my kids play.  Both Tammy-Lee and I feel this is really important.  We’re both busy, but we felt that there had to be at the very least two days (afternoons) a month that we could set aside.

 

Another friend and I get together on Mondays while our children go to choir.  I treasure our conversations.  Often times our talks keep me thinking for a good chunk of the week.  We don’t always talk about deep stuff or spiritual stuff, but we have different things in common than Tammy-Lee and I do.  Reagan fills my friendship cup in a different way.  Really, I need them both in my life.  (I think it’s obvious because God has placed them both in my life right now.) 

 

Reagan and I have known each other long than Tammy-Lee and I have but have never built our relationship until this fall.  That delay wasn’t intentional; it wasn’t due to lack of wanting to on either side.  I guess it needed to be in God’s timing and circumstances.  God has led Reagan and her husband down a road, a path of study, that I am now slowly traveling and exploring.  Their insight and direction and opinion and study are important to me now.  A year ago or more I wouldn’t have cared.  God knew.

 

I would like to do something similar with other moms / ladies / couples in the community.  I know that will get my schedule pretty full, but it’s full of good things; it would be filled with people.  You have to remember that all of this visiting talk is coming from a introvert.  I do not get my energy from people.  I would way sooner hide at my desk or in my home.  I will need to find the balance so I’m not pushed to the brink because I don’t have the time alone that I need to stay sane.

 

We’re gonna take it slow.  Christmas time is a busy time as it is, but I’d like to sneak in a couple of extra intentional visits in the next 6 weeks or so with people from our fire fighter family and our church family.  In the new year, we’ll see how things go and make visiting a regular part of our monthly activities.  I think being intentional about relationships is important.

 

Still diggin',