How do you pray? Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath. So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms. Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him.What is prayer?Prayer has been defined in many ways. Here are a few great quotes describing prayer to start our series:“True, whole prayer is nothing but love.” St. Augustine“A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.” Soren Kierkegaard“Prayer fastens the soul to God.” Julian of Norwich“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” Saint Teresa"To pray is to work, to work is to pray." Motto of the Benedictine Order"Praying is simply a two-way … [Read more...]
Giving God my Entire Attention – Lectio Divina
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matthew 6:34 (The Message)Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.My entire attention? You want it all? But I am so good at multi-tasking God. Couldn’t I just sort of listen, kind of pray, and pretend to fully love you and continue to work on my all important to-do list, cling to my worries, and fiddle with what I think is best for me?My entire attention? What would that feel like? Would it hurt me that much to let go of my ego and fully dive into Your presence?My entire attention? Divert my eyes from what I think is important – the shiny, the urgent, the busyness jumping up and down demanding my time? Look closely for You, Lord? My entire attention? If I did that I would have to let go of old habits, worldly desires, and comfortable ways. You may ask me to … [Read more...]
Henri Nouwen
Henri Nouwen is one of my favorite writers. An internationally renowned priest and author, respected professor and beloved pastor, Henri Nouwen wrote over 40 books on the spiritual life. Born in Nijkerk, Holland, on January 24, 1932, Nouwen felt called to the priesthood at a very young age. He was ordained in 1957 as a diocesan priest and studied psychology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. In 1964 he moved to the United States to study at the Menninger Clinic. He went on to teach at the University of Notre Dame, and the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard. For several months during the 1970s, Nouwen lived and worked with the Trappist monks in the Abbey of the Genesee, and in the early 1980s he lived with the poor in Peru. In 1985 he was called to join L’Arche in Trosly, France, the first of over 100 communities founded by Jean Vanier where people with developmental disabilities live with assistants. A year later Nouwen came to make his home at L’Arche Daybreak near Toronto, … [Read more...]
Spiritual Discouragement – a Messy Muck
Recent newscasts show the growing tragedy of the geysers of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps the scene that breaks my heart the most is the wildlife struggling to survive, drenched in thick brown muck. Some float and most barely walk, no, they weakly stagger, under the weight of the heavy oil. The only signs of life we can see is their desperate eyes pleading for help. They know they cannot save themselves. They seek hope. The cleaning process for these exhausted birds begins with covering them in Canola oil, followed by a thorough bath in dishwashing detergent and water. Volunteers spend at least one full painstaking hour of scrubbing, rubbing, and rinsing to get each bird clean. I thought of these pelicans this past weekend when discouragement overwhelmed my heart. I dragged with a heaviness of spirit, weighted down in the messy muck of this favorite tool of the devil. The evil one knows too well my Achilles heel and attacks me, especially when I am … [Read more...]
Make a Clean Break – Lectio Divina
"Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:31-32 (MSG)Make a clean break.Lord, it is so much easier for me to be sarcastic than accepting. I am quicker to criticize than to love. I jump to conclusions, assuming fault in the other person and letting my self-protecting defenses rule my heart instead of You.You tell me make a clean break. Reminds me when I am in my stained glass workshop in the garage cutting glass. I score the line on the glass and with one quick jerk, SNAP, the glass breaks evenly and precisely as designed. If I don’t score completely or break quickly, the glass shatters with jagged edges that cut my fingers.Lord, Your death and resurrection forever settled the score, so we could make a clean break with the world and its sin.Make a clean break.I will keep this as my prayer this week that with Your strength, I can break … [Read more...]
Journaling for Discernment
Keeping a journal is a spiritual practice that often helps enlighten and guide when you are discerning a new step in your life. Words are powerful. Words clarify, provide direction, and offer a way to sort through the junk to find the treasure.Several years ago I was in a dilemma. As county health commissioner, I no longer enjoyed the work that tipped more toward bioterrorism prevention than health promotion. My passion no longer lie with personnel and financial tensions overloaded with smallpox, plaque, and pandemic flu. I had the opportunity to retire, but needed to decide when. This is where my journal helped in my discernment. I charted my feelings, my indecisiveness, my hopes and dreams over a several year period. After much turmoil, even some missteps in the wrong direction, I decided on July 2006 as the date. I discovered something really odd though, several weeks after making my final decision.Rereading my journal, I jotted down these words TWO years before – “I think God … [Read more...]
God’s Fingerprints – You are who you were when you were ten
“You are who you were when you were ten,” my friend Diane said to me the other day. That statement fascinated and haunted me. Is it true?I think God wires us certain ways when we are created. We can learn outside and beyond those initial markings, but these often are our strengths and core passions.Who were you at age 8, 9 or 10? Thinking back I realized I was a writer and imaginative explorer. My fourth grade teacher called me a poet and gave me a special book of poetry at the end of the school year. I remember summers playing in a make believe sailboat exploring deserted islands – in reality the boat was a smaller tree with great limbs to climb through and the island, the empty lot behind my house.Now I don’t think we are locked into who we were at age ten, but if we take the time reflect on who we were as a child before all the adult masks were donned and the world told us who to be, we may discover our true selves – who God meant us to be. What do you think?Every life is a fairy … [Read more...]
God’s Strength Lectio Divina
"Go in the strength you have..." (Judges 6:14)So often, Lord I have no strength left. The world crushes my hopes and zaps my energy. I don’t think I can go on.Yet you tell me to “go in the strength” I have. Lord, when all seems hopeless, I still go on.Lord, when everything takes an effort, I still try.Lord with your help, your strength, I can take one more step, live one more day.I used to think this verse referred to my strength, but now realize I possess access to Your limitless strength.Your strength makes all the difference.I arise todayThrough the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom. I arise todayThrough God's strength to pilot me;God's might to uphold me,God's wisdom to guide me,God's eye to look before me,God's ear to hear me,God's word to speak for me,God's hand to guard me,God's way to lie before … [Read more...]