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',

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',

God’s Secretive Plan

From the very beginning, that Eden beginning, that has always been and always is, to this day, His secret purpose – our return to our full glory. Appalling – that He would! Us, unworthy. And yet since we took a bite out of the fruit and tore into our own souls, that drain hole where joy seeps away, God’s had this wild secretive plan.  He means to fill us with glory again. With glory and grace.

~~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, Chapter 1.

 

---

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,

but not the wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age,

who are coming to nothing. 

No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom,

a wisdom that has been hidden and that God

destined for our glory before time began.

1 Corinthians 2:6,7

 

 

 

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',

Sabbath: Happiness

Well, over the Christmas holidays we got a little bit away from the minimal Sabbath practices I had started for our family.  I am hoping that blogging about the remainder of the book by Wayne Muller that I can jog my memory and my actions.  Christmas fell on Saturday this year and so I didn’t serve our soup and crisp.  I’m hoping to pick that up again on the first of January.

 

Now on to the section called Happiness.

 

There are many verses in the Bible that talk about having joy and happiness.  God doesn’t want His people to be glum.  However, happiness takes time.  This comes from page 124:

Happiness grows only in the sweet soil of time.  As our time is eaten away by speed and overwork, we are less available to be surprised  by joy, a sunset, a kind word,an unplanned game of tag with a child,a warm loaf of bread from the oven.  But for all our striving and accomplishment, our underlying need for happiness does not withdraw and disappear.  So we pursue happiness on the run, trying to make our lives more and more efficient, squeezing every task into tighter increments, hoping to somehow “get” our happiness when we are able to fit it in.

and from page 126:

The more hurried and rushed we are, the more we are willing to trade happiness for desire – and, over time, the less we are able to discern the difference between the two.

 

I loved the chapter on happiness.  I loved the suggestions of ways to stop and feel and be.  Take time to be thankful.  Go window shopping and just enjoy the pretty and expensive things you see.  Create a morning ritual – like reading  in bed in the morning.  Take off your shoes and just feel, really feel, the ground.  These are  things to add to my Sabbath list.  I love it.

 

Still diggin',

Finding Rest – learning about Sabbath.

So in continuing my study on the Sabbath I am joining up with a book club called Bloom Book Club.  We are reading a book called Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives  by Wayne Muller.  The first section is about finding rest through Sabbath.

 

If we do not rest, we run out of steam.  In our busy world, we equate rest with failure.  We do not give ourselves permission to rest, but God commanded it.  We have guilt and shame when resting but we need to let that go.  Through the fourth commandment, God gives us permission; we were commanded to stop.  If we don’t, we get sick, or have an accident.  In our busy world, God allows things to happen that force us into Sabbath and changes our world.  I want to come to a practice of Sabbath before something “bad” or serious happens to me or to my family that forces a Sabbath upon us.

 

Find joy in resting.  There are many places in the Bible that tells us about Jesus resting.  Matthew 14:23, Luke 5:15-16 and Mark 1:32-33, 35-36 are just a few of the verses mentioned specifically in Sabbath.  I love the following quote from page 25:

Jesus did not wait until everyone had been properly cared for, until all who sought him were healed.  He did not ask for permission to go, nor did he leave anyone behind “on call”, or even let his disciples know where he was going.  Jesus obeyed a deeper rhythm.  When the moment for rest had com, the time for healing was over.  He would simply stop, retire to a quiet place, and pray.

 

I can see how easy it is going to be to become legalistic about the Sabbath in our lives.  There is such a fine balance between legalism and nonchalant.  I don’t want my Sabbath time to be dreary and no fun.  I want it to be a time of refreshing and joy and I don’t think that can happen if too many rules are imposed on that time.

¹³ “ If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
      From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
      And call the Sabbath a delight,
      The holy day of the LORD honorable,
      And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
      Nor finding your own pleasure,
      Nor speaking your own words,
       ¹⁴ Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD;
      And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
      And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
      The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14, New King James Version)

 

Oh, I loved this too:  “Until the Sabbath, creation was unfinished.” (page 37)  The Sabbath becomes the end and the beginning of our week, for instance.  It’s a new beginning.  A time of rest, just like sleep, then when we wake, we are beginning a new day.  The Sabbath is the same.

 

It is good.  “Our willingness to rest depends on what we believe we will find there.” (page 40)  Do we believe that resting is good?  God sat back and looked at His work and said it was good.  I’m guessing, that if He blessed the Sabbath that it is considered good too.  Right?  So, why do we resist it so much?  Or do we really?  I think there is something in all of us that begs to rest.  I want to embrace that blessing – the blessing of the Sabbath.

 

Some Sabbath practice suggestions:

• light candles – these can signify the beginning of the Sabbath day / time.
• create specific time and space – “choose at least one heavily used appliance or device . . . and let them rest for a Sabbath period.”(page 27)
• a Sabbath meal – My friends start and end their Sabbath day with a special meal!  I love to hear her talk about it.  She said that even her children miss their Sabbath meals if they happen to be away from home at the time.  And in speaking with their oldest son (11) he confirmed this.  I want that joy I see in them.  She said that at first it was really tough to be ready and to have everything done, but now it is such a routine that they really look forward to each Friday evening.  If you could read her Facebook statuses, you would see and hear that as well!
• begin again – “Choose one common act during your day to serve as a Sabbath pause.” (page 39)  I think this one is rather strange, but I have started to take times to just pause and I am finding that it serves as a “soft reset” to my day.  Even just the act of taking a deep breath can refocus a person.
• blessings – My friend, who I mentioned earlier, has also mentioned that they have a time of blessing at their Friday evening meal.  The author mentions something called “guerrilla blessing” which is silently blessing those around us – in the bank or grocery store, or in traffic around us.

 

I have a little more reading to do on the section of REST, and the next section is RHYTHM.

Still diggin',