November 30 is the first Sunday of Advent. How will you prepare your heart for this special season this year? The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming” or “visit.” Advent is the four weeks before Christmas when we look with hope and anticipation for the coming Christ Child. This time of year can be hectic, full of family drama, and preoccupations with both comforting and/or sad memories. Yet many of us want to take some time to ponder the true reason for the season and spend time with God. Advent is a wonderful opportunity to be open to prayer to shape our spirit this season. "Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent.If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the … [Read more...]
Teresa of Avila – Perseverance in Prayer
Every life tells a story – a story rich with spiritual lessons. One spiritual practice I follow is learning about other Christians throughout church history and their spiritual journeys. Their lives fill me with hope, guidance and ways to draw closer to God. My faith tradition – Lutheran – has added to the worship and lectionary readings what they call commemorations – recognition of individuals or events that have been noteworthy in the life of the Church. Our Catholic friends have for centuries honored saints on certain festival days. What I am really enjoying is the expansion of the names on the Lutheran list to include people from all denominations. Teresa of Avila Many of you may never have heard of this woman who lived in the 1500s. We celebrate her day on October 15th. Teresa was born in Spain and at the age of fifteen, after her mother's death and the marriage of her oldest sister, Teresa was sent to be educated with Augustinian nuns. She returned home several times … [Read more...]
WHACK! “A Gentle Whack on the Side of the Head” Kind of God
What a great start to the morning -on my second cup of coffee, checking the third item off my to-do list, and accomplishing numerous jobs. I was a multitasking fiend, zipping along like a road runner. WHACK! Hitting myself on the side of the head I said out loud, “I forgot to pray this morning.” Each morning I try to start my day with the Lord. I sit quietly and praise him. I lift up my prayer concerns for family and friends and I read a devotional. Often I also journal where I feel God is leading me on my journey. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But to be honest too often I dive into my day without first honoring God. WHACK! Do you watch NCIS? This favorite television show of mine shows the main character, Gibbs, occasionally slapping Dinozzo, another agent, on the back of the head -a mild, loving head slap to redirect Dinozzo’s attention back to where it belongs. Gibbs administers tough love on his agents. WHACK! As soon as I realized I forgot God, I quit all the … [Read more...]
Hidden Clutter
A tip from my Weight Watcher friends is to put the three-pound weights on my desk where I would see them readily and use them more often. While waiting for a video to load on the computer or the printer to print, I could exercise. Great idea! I tried it. It worked for the sum of one day. Then my eyes quit seeing the weights on my desk, hidden among the clutter or amid the normal environment of my desk. Even in plain sight, I never thought of them. On a side note, one lady at the Weight Watchers group said she finally put her dumbbells in her microwave. She has to remove them every time she uses the microwave and then uses them more often. Mmm, don’t think I will try that one. Hidden clutter. Hidden in plain sight but not seen. I read an blog post a few weeks back titled, "The Clutter We Rarely Notice.” My desk may look messy but I can tell you where everything is. I can have a place for everything and still have clutter. My eyes soon only see what stands out, what is … [Read more...]
Five Ways to Find Balance Spiritually
As I sat at the table at the blogging conference I attended in September, our initial enthusiasm waned. How would we get all these great ideas implemented? One of my new friends sighed, “Really, how do we balance all the demands of writing, family, faith, working and the world?” I hear this all the time in our conversations with others. Most of us do struggle with juggling all the wanted and needed obligations in life – demands from the outside and expectations from others and even self-imposed mandates. We give and give our time and energy to others, then wonder if and when we can carve out a moment or two to work on our dreams. And where does God fit into this? I have every good intention of starting my day with him in prayer, silence and study and many times do meet him early. But way too often I find myself not even thinking of God until late afternoon, or with a quick prayer in the car or as I crash into the bed at night. When I do practice centering prayer or … [Read more...]
How to Listen in Prayer
Many of us want to hear God better. We deeply desire to shake the water out of our ears and listen in prayer more intently. There are no tricks or magic methods to automatically open the passage to God, but I have learned a few ways that help me create a quiet space for him. Most of the time the ways hush and silent myself and my inner chatting in order to hear what he has been saying to me all along. 1. First, ask God to help you hear him better. Often we focus on our frustration of not hearing him or prefer to whine and complain about his absence instead of simply asking for his voice. 2. Practice Stillness – oh, so hard, isn’t it? A recent report told that some people preferred an electrical shock over sitting still for 15 minutes!! “People consistently said that the short thinking period was not enjoyable and they found it difficult to concentrate. Most people said they’d rather be listening to music or using their smartphones.” We need to retrain ourselves for quiet … [Read more...]
Spiritual Muscle Memory
The Network of Bible StoryTellers Festival continues to teach me even now at home. I was amazed at how they learned to tell the stories – striving for 75% or more accuracy in the words they use and 95% accurate in the content of the story. One method they taught us to learn the stories was to add gestures; the same one each time to illustrate a point. For example, moving arms each time to point that Jesus moved from one place to another or to look up when looking at a mountain. Adding movement to the story creates muscle memory. Muscle memory is simply the process by which we consolidate a specific motor task into memory through repetition. Whatever the habit or movement worked on becomes so natural, it doesn’t need much conscious effort. The whole concept of muscle memory fascinates me and encourages me that maybe I can internalize long, more complex stories of the Bible. Though practice and repetition, my body helps me remember the words and action. How marvelous is … [Read more...]
Marinating in the Scriptures
Marinate. Marinate means to seep, rest in, soak in the elements, to leave time to reflect. This word reentered my heart when I attended the Network of Bible StoryTellers Festival Gathering a few weeks ago. In order to learn the bible story they are sharing, the teller gives time for the story to marinate within them. Most tellers commented that learning the story wasn’t a process of memorization, but the story became a part of them, transforming them forever. They marinated in the story. How powerful is that? God’s living Word taking root deep within us, soaking every cell and element of this human body and spirit, then blossoming outward for others to see and hear. And when you marinate, you absorb the taste, the spices and all the wonderfulness of what infuses your soul. God’s characteristics enveloping us. We become the story. Dr. Leonard Sweet wrote: "The more you marinate your mind and soak your soul in the Scriptures, the more the Word becomes your … [Read more...]