Lindbergh on Hurry
September 30, 2008
From the writings of Anne Morrow Lindbergh comes this sobering quote on hurry. You will find it on page 512 of Celtic Daily Prayer which quotes it from “Bring Me a Unicorn”:
Let’s get your thoughts on the greatest danger of hurry in your life.
In the Present Moment
Hurry is an unpleasant thing in itself, but also very unpleasant for whoever is around it. Some people came into my room and rushed in an rushed out and even when they were there they were not there–they were in the moment ahead or the moment behind. Some people who came in just for a moment were all there, completely in that moment.
Live from day to day, just from day to day. If you do so, you worry less and live more richly. If you let yourself be absorbed completely, if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly in those moments.
I do not think it is lack of time that keeps me from doing things, it is that I do not want enough to do them.
Well, thanks Anne. You speak truth to the inner man.
The reality Lindbergh describes, probably from experience, challenges me to intend to live more in the moment.
This is the sad thing about hurry: it robs us of the joy of the moment and dulls our senses to experience the present. Since hurry has no present and no presence it is not profitable to anyone.
Seeking 1
September 28, 2008
I was struck the other day by the opening question of Celtic Daily Prayer (CDP): Do you seek me with all your heart… soul… mind… strength? Each of these probably deserves a post. Today the heart gets first dibs.
How do you answer “Do you seek the Lord with all your heart?”
I answered in the negative with sorrow but without being down on myself. The prescribed response of CDP is “Amen. Lord have mercy.” Amen is the willing agreement to seek God with the whole heart. Lord have mercy is our admission of seeking imperfectly. And so it shall be until our every waking moment and every breath is seeking Him.
Scot McKnight wrote 40 Days of Living the Jesus Creed. 40 vignettes about loving God, others and self. I challenged myself recently to preach 40 sermons based on the Jesus Creed inspired by Scot’s book. I just finished number 11. 29 to go and I am still as excited as could be.
The heart is what we will with. It is the seat where dwells all that we hold dear. I like to think of the heart as a community that is made up of people and things that are there not according to our choice and people and things that we choose to invite in (this idea comes from David Ford). An example of who and what reside in the community of our hearts not by our own choice would be our parents, our childhood experiences (good or bad), our siblings, the teaching we receive early in life. An example of what we choose would be friends, experiences we wish to treasure, and other things that are not so good for us. Problem of the heart develop when by imprudence we invite people and things into our hearts we have no business inviting. If we open the door to lust, or violent thinking, or other negative things we create a tension that leads into some dysfunction. Overexposure to the wrong attitudes, and wrong images cause fightings within and without. In dysfunction it is hard to seek and to love God with the whole heart, with any semblance of holiness!
What shall we do? Run to the cross and at the cross where our savior died we ask for mercy. The Spirit of Jesus cleanses our hearts and we get a fresh start. Nothing else will do.
Road Runner Christianity
September 28, 2008
The first cartoon I ever saw (no cartoons in Lebanon where I grew up) was Road Runner frustrating the living Acme out of the Coyote who tried heroically to out speed him for a few ounces of meat on spindly bones. Road Runner always outsmarted Coyote and “out sped him. These two did life with dizzying speed. Road Runner could put it in overdrive anytime he saw danger approaching from Coyote. I was impressed with the cartoon. I watched it every Saturday morning. But then I was only 19 years old. Overexposure worked!
Richard Foster was interviewing John Ortberg on a series they were doing on the disciplines of the Christian life. Ortberg answered one of Richard’s questions about how to devote some time to the practice of the disciplines. Ortberg remembered Dallas Willard’s best advise to him: “Be ruthless with eliminating hurry from your life.” Ortberg swears by this advice as one which saved his life as he stepped out of the boat of hurry!
Is yours a Road Runner life in Christ? If inventory were taken of your schedule would there be any need to declare a missing road runner mentality from your life? At missional order we are committed to a slower life. We will struggle together with you in eliminating hurry from our lives. All of us are succeptible to hurry and eliminating it from our lives, if desirable, must be done intentionally. There will times of concentrated road runner hurry in our lives. Too much of it and danger lurks in the shadows of our paths.
The last 24 hour road runner schedule I’ve been guilty of (they say confession is good for the soul).
Saturday: 5:30 drive to Kansas City from Topeka to speak at a newly formed Arabic Congregation (70 miles). The preacher was long winded and the meeting which started at 7 didn’t get out until 9:30 or so. Home by 10:30 or so (70 miles). I gained three minutes of time by setting the cruise at 75 miles an hour. From about 10:30 till midnight I prepared for preaching the following day. I did some reading in Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care (a great resource, by the way) and prayed through many of the issues I was reading about. Copmline followed.
Sunday morning I finished a sermon I was going to preach later in the day on Sunday. Hurried through morning prayer. I pricelined a hotel room in Wichita for the night. Went to Sunday School at 9:30, left to preach in Topeka at 10:30. Came home at 12:30, ate lunch, and packed to go to Wichita to preach at a great international church at 4:00. Got out by 6. Supper at PF Chang in Wichita. Read through a couple of articles while eating on a topic I am writing about for a counseling course I am taking (OK, if you must know it’s about religious obsession or scrupulosity). Now I am writing this post about how not to hurry life from my hotel room! Will do compline just before bed.
OK, don’t cry for me people. No one to blame but hurry itself. The tyranny of the urgent is a disease and we need help with the remedy. I admit that there are seasons of life when hurry seems inevitable. God gives grace and mercy. But let’s not play with fire. Can a man hide fire in his bosom and not be burned?
So here are my top 5 quick tips (just kidding with the quick) on how to eliminate hurry from your life:
1…
2…
3…
4…
5…
Help! Should I call the ACME for a package of 5, add water and see what sprouts up? Or do you have any suggestions on how you have eliminated hurry from your life?
If you find you have to squeeze a sacred rhythm in, need time to focus on continuous spiritual formation, live missionally daily, and hold a full time job, you should call Willard and demand a recant on his advice to Ortberg!
Hearing the Bible Missionally
September 25, 2008
Dallas Willard has said that our churches are full of converts who do not intend to become disciples. Another way to put it would be this: Our churches are full of people who are there to receive the benefits of grace without knowing that they are receiving such blessings “in order to be a blessing.”
In such congregations, mission tends to be one of many programs done by the community, rather than to define the very purpose and character of the community. Mission sermons are preached now and again in order to mobilize action or resources for a particular outreach. People know that mission is a theme of the Bible, and they expect to hear about it now and again. But discipling is rarely focused on mission. It is primarily understood, where it is talked about, as a process of personal spiritual growth. . . .
Where missional renewal is happening, different kinds of questions are brought to the Bible. Congregations are open to being challenged, to looking hard at their deeply ingrained attitudes and expectations.
The missional approach asks: How does God’s Word call, shape, transform, and send me . . . and us? Coupled with this openness is the awareness that biblical formation must mean change, and often conversion. Christian communities may discover that their discipling will require repentance and that their way of being church will have to change.
– Darrell Guder in Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness
I Prayed For Us
September 21, 2008
Today I felt led to pray:
- That the missional order community would settle this issue absolutely: The primacy of a life that intentionally pays attention to God.
Lord, hear my prayer.
- That the missional order community would be relentless in “stalking our soul” in the presence of God. (This phrase comes from Leighton Ford’s The Attentive Life.)
Lord, hear my prayer.
- That we would long deeply for God in us and in the world but also move into prayers of “absolute attention” (Simone Weil’s understanding of prayer).
Lord, hear my prayer.
- That God would continue to give us strength to do his bidding, and to attend to his mission for us and to his conforming us to the image of his son (This is our second and third commitments: continuous formation, and participation in the mission of God).
Lord, hear our prayer.
- That this journey we travel together would help us to see that praying the hours (Praying morning, noon, evening, and compline) would be a constant reminder of the start, midpoints, evening, and end of our life’s pilgrimage to God.
Lord, hear my prayer.
Sacred rhythm praying (morning, middday, dusk, and night) corresponds nicely to the epochs of our own lives with God and our spiritual growth. This is worth exploring as Ford explored it for his life in The Attentive Life.
Happy travels!
Who’s On Your List?
September 21, 2008
In morning and evening prayers CDP leaves room for us to choose what to pray. The time of prayer happens right after the Bible readings. I often say prayers of praise and thanks (adoration) to God. I also take time to petition God for the changes I need in my life. What I need most in my life is personal transformation and that need fits the biblical pattern for prayer as often the Psalmists demonstrate. I ask God to take my heart and shape it, my soul and break it, my spirit and edify it, and my strength to sustain it. I petition God to fill me with his grace (to enable me to do and change what I can’t do or change on my own).
My petition is not only for personal change but also for change in others. What we may pray to God for others is limitless in scope. We call it intercession. I have found the pattern I explain here helpful. If it is too scripted for you, come clean with it and devise your own. For me some scripting is inevitable even if the scripting is simply asking God what I should pray for.
This is the pattern I follow mostly.
- On Mondays I intercede for family members near and far by name. Often I use the Jesus Prayer on each family member’s behalf: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on so and so. If I know of particular needs I ask God for the changes needed in their lives.
- On Tuesdays, I pray for my colleagues and their ministries. At times I use a verse of Scripture to pray for them.
- On Wednesdays I pray for the church where I worship, its leaders, its ministries, its necessary changes.
- On Thursdays: My Country of Origin
- On Fridays: My adopted country, the USA
- On Saturdays: For missionaries around the globe.
- On Sundays: Smorgasbord.
These suggestions work for me. Design your own. It is good to know what to pray for. I can go to bed anticipating the prayers for tomorrow the night before.
I also use written prayers during CDP prayer times. My favorite is Diary of Private Prayer. There are prayers in DPP I would never think to pray on my own.
I end the time of prayer on days when more time is available with a prayer walk, singing a favorite hymn, or song, memorizing a prayer from CDP or other prayer resource.
The key to remember during prayer is that prayer is paying attention to the giver more than his gifts. A sacred rhythm way to live enriches our capacity to pay attention to God as such.
Creating a pattern for prayer during CDP is important to me. Is it to you?
Adoration
September 19, 2008
There is a point in Celtic Daily Prayer (CDP) to pray freely, and for others. What do you pray for? At the risk of sounding too audacious I offer the following pattern which has guided me in the past.
- The morning prayer time is an excellent opportunity to engage in centering our lives in God as we pray. Centering prayer is simply this: becoming internally quiet (going into the center of our being) in order to receive a word or phrase from the Lord. After receiving this word we dwell on it for a few minutes until God releases us as we rest in Him. The image of centering prayer is that of a baby snuggling in her mother’s arms resting and dwelling in her presence.
- During free prayer, I also take a moment to ask the Lord what prayers he desires to hear from me today. I listen, then pray what I am trusting God desires to hear.
- Adoration follows. Adoration is the kind of attention from us God loves to get. He loves to hear us tell him our praises and say our thanks. What we can and should praise and thank God for is endless. In adoration we pay close attention to God by recounting to him his acts and his graces. I have a few friends who at times tell me how wonderful I am. Frankly, I find it embarassing. But God does not get embarassed. He deserves all the praise and thanks we direct his way.
The blessings that are mine are all the reasons I need to praise and thank God. When I add to that our collective blessings as a people and a nation it becomes even imperative to adore God constantly. I adore him and hold nothing back, telling God how wonderful his blueberry tastes and how much I admire his majestic and graceful blue whale.
Eugene Petersen says that spirituality (our experiences of the actions of the Holy Spirit in our lives is local and ordinary as opposed to experiences by a yoga guru positioned on a mountain top in Tibet. It’s earthy or of the earth, of real life, day in and day out. It happens when we shop for groceries, or when we walk the dog, or eat a hot dog. It’s what we experience with our senses regularly. Adoration (giving expression to what we experience of the goodness of God) actualizes our spirituality.
What part does adoration play in your prayer?
Missional: More Than A Buzz Word
September 18, 2008
The blog ryhthm that we are going to try to maintain here at Missional Order involves discussing each of the three common commitments Monday through Friday. We are going to dialogue on Sacred Rhythm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; Continuous Formation on Tuesdays; and Participation in the Missio Dei on Thursdays.
With this blog schedule in mind I thought it would be helpful to attempt to define what we mean when we speak of participating in the Missio Dei or in a broader sense what does it mean to be missional?
To begin that discussion here on the blog I am going to re-post an article that I wrote a couple of months ago over at Missional Church Network titled “Missional: More Than A Buzz Word.”
Missional: More Than a Buzz Word
(The Sequel)
In an earlier post I shared three theological distinctions that I believe are necessary to bring clarity and explanation to the use of the word “missional.” Today I want to move the discussion toward practical issues in congregational life.
However, before considering steps that may be taken to help move a church in a missional direction it is necessary that we challenge our basic theological assumptions about who we are as faith communities in God’s Kingdom. Without such theological considerations we run the risk of simply attaching the word “missional” onto everything the church is already doing rather than gaining a fresh perspective to see more clearly what the missional church is all about.
Therefore, I want to begin by elaborating on the three theological distinctions discussed earlier and then add five practical reflections on how to best foster a missional posture within a new or existing faith community.
1. The Missional Church is about the missionary nature of God and His church.
The church is a vital part of the missional conversation. However, the church must not be seen as “a place where religious goods and services are provided,” but instead it should be understood as the “gathered and sent people of God.”
Scripture is replete with language that speaks to the missionary nature of a Triune God. God the Father sends the Son, and God the Father and the Son sends the Spirit, and God the Father and the Son and the Spirit sends the church. In the Gospel of John alone, Jesus describes Himself more than thirty times as “one sent.” In the final climatic sending passage in John’s Gospel, Jesus sees himself not only as one sent but also as one who is sending: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).
The Missional Church recognizes the purpose of the church is derived from the very nature of God which in turn compels it to be sent as a missionary people, individually and collectively.
2. The Missional Church is about the church being incarnational rather than attractional.
Those with a missional perspective no longer see the church service as the primary connecting point for those outside the church. The missional church is more concerned about sending the people in the church out among the people of the world, rather than getting the people of the world in among the people of the church. Others have described this distinction as a challenge to “go and be” as opposed to “come and see.”
Missional churches see their primary function as one of actively moving into a community to embody and enflesh the word, deed and life of Jesus into every nook and cranny. Eugene Peterson’s “incarnational” rendering of John 1:14 in the Message paraphrase illustrates this well when it states, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”
3. The Missional Church is about actively participating in the missio Dei, or mission of God.
Many times we wrongly assume that the primary activity of God is in the church, rather than recognizing that God’s primary activity is in the world, and the church is God’s instrument sent into the world to participate in His redemptive mission.
This distinction clarifies the difference between a church with a missions program and a missional church. A church with a missions program usually sees missions as one activity alongside many other equally important programs of the church. A missional church, on the other hand, focuses all of its activities around its participation in God’s agenda for the world.
As the sent, missionary people of God, the missional church understands its fundamental purpose as being rooted in God’s mission to restore and heal creation and to call people into a reconciled relationship with Himself. It is God’s mission, or missio Dei, that calls the church into existence. Or in the words of South African missiologist David Bosch; “It is not the church which undertakes mission; it is the missio Dei which constitutes the church.”
Fostering a Missional Posture
So what will it take for the church to foster a missional posture? We must first begin with deep reflections and dialogue surrounding the three theological distinctions mentioned above. Beyond these three points there are at least five practical, yet no less important considerations.
1. Start with Spiritual Formation
As mentioned above, God calls the church to be a sent community of people who no longer live for themselves but instead live to participate with Him in His redemptive purposes. However, people will have neither the passion nor the strength to live as a counter cultural society for the sake of others if they are not transformed by the way of Jesus. If the church is to “go and be” then we must make certain that we are a Spirit formed community that has the spiritual capacity to impact the lives of others.
This means the church must take seriously its responsibility to cultivate spiritual transformation that does not allow believers to remain as adolescents in their spiritual maturity. Such spiritual formation will involve much greater relational underpinnings and considerable engagement with a multitude of spiritual disciplines.
2. Emphasize the Priesthood of All Believers
Martin Luther’s idea of the priesthood of all believers was that all Christians were called to carry out their vocational ministries in every area of life. Every believer must fully understand how their vocation plays a central part in God’s redemptive Kingdom.
I think it was Rick Warren who made popular the phase “every member is a minister.” While this phrase is a helpful slogan to move people to understand their responsibility in the life of the church, God’s purpose for His church would be better served if we encouraged people to recognize that “every member is a missionary.”
3. Create a New Scorecard
The church must move far beyond measuring success by the traditional indicators of attendance, buildings and cash. Instead we must create new scorecards to measure ministry effectiveness. These new scorecards will include measurements that point to the church’s impact on community transformation rather than measuring what is happening among church members inside the church walls.
A missional church may ask how many hours has the church spent praying for community issues? How many hours have church members (including staff) spent with unbelievers? How many community groups use the facilities of the church? How many people are healthier because of the clinic the church operates? How many people are in new jobs because of free job training offered by the church? What is the number of school children who are getting better grades because of after-school tutoring the church provides. Or how many times do community leaders call the church asking for advice?
Until the church reconsiders the definition of ministry success and creates new scorecards to appropriately measure that success, we will continue to allocate vital resources in misguided directions.
4. Search for Third Places
In a post-Christendom culture where more and more people are less and less interested in activities of the church, it is increasingly important to connect with people in places of neutrality, or common “hang outs.” In the book “The Great Good Place” author Ray Oldenburg identifies these places of common ground as “third places.”
According to Oldenburg, third places are those environments in which people meet to interact with others and develop friendships. In Oldenburg’s thinking our first place is the home and the people with whom we live. The second place is where we work and the place we spend the majority of our waking hours. But the third place is an informal setting where people relax and have the opportunity to know and be known by others.
Third places might include the local coffee shop, hair salon, restaurant, mall, or fitness center. These places of common ground must take a position of greater importance in the overall ministry of the church as individuals begin to recognize themselves as missionaries sent into the local context to serve.
In addition to connecting with people in the third places present in our local communities, we need to rediscover the topic of hospitality whereby our own homes become a place of common ground. Biblical hospitality is much more than entertaining others in our homes. Genuine hospitality involves inviting people into our lives, learning to listen, and cultivating an environment of mercy and justice, whether our interactions occur in third places or within our own homes. Regardless of our setting, we must learn to welcome the stranger.
5. Tap into the Power of Stories
Instead of trying to define what it means to be missional, it may be helpful to describe missional living through stories and images. We can capture the “missional imagination” by sharing what other faith communities are doing and illustrate what it looks like to connect with people in third places, cultivate rapport with local schools, and build relationships with neighbors.
Moreover, we can reflect deeply on biblical images of mission, service and hospitality by spending time on passages such as Genesis 12:2, Isaiah 61:1-3, Matthew 5:43; 10:40; 22:39; 25:35 and Luke 10:25-37.
The greatest challenge facing the church in the West is the “re-conversion” of its own members. We need to be converted away from an internally focused, Constantinean mode of church and converted towards an externally focused, missional-incarnational movement that is a true reflection of the missionary God we follow. This conversion will not be easy. The gravitational pull to focus all of our resources on ourselves is strong. My prayer, however, is that a clearer understanding of the word “missional” will help to form us and ultimately move us in the proper direction.
Tuesdays Are For Formation
September 16, 2008
I posted this quote yesterday over at Missional Church Network. In chapter six, titled “Transition in Spiritual Formation” Tim Conder shares how he is seeing a shift in the mission of spiritual nurturing in the church from a compartmentalized, individualistic approach to one that emphasizes “rhythms of spiritual practices.” Moreover, this “rule of life” involves a wide variety of spiritual practices from divergent traditions. I think this quote speaks to purpose of this Missional Order:
“The advent of the emerging culture is causing a reformation — perhaps even a revolution — in the church’s understanding of spiritual formation. Instead of a compartmentalized spirituality that focuses on personal choices, we are seeing the growth of a new approach to spiritual formation that emphasizes a rule of life and rhythms of spiritual practices drawing from a vast array of Christian traditions.
Thankfully, there is a widening pool of resources to aid churches, Christians, and spiritual sojourners in the exploration of spiritual practices that support this transformation of orientation. It’s truly exciting to see churches making use of a wide range of historic and experiential spiritual practices, such as labyrinths, body prayers, praying the hours, meditation using the repetition of historical prayers and liturgies like the Jesus Prayer, lectio divina, the integration of art and physical practices into prayer, fasting, the use of contemporary and historical symbols and icons, and the restoration and veneration of the Eucharist and baptism in traditions that once minimized these rites.”
The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches into the Emerging Culture by Tim Conder
Sacred Safety
September 13, 2008
One morning I journaled a meditation after reading the Opening Sentences in Celtic Daily Prayer (CDP).
Through sacred rhythm (the first commitment of Missiona Order) I find safety and shalom in the company of God. In the temple of God, under the wings of the Almighty, there is rest from the constant attacks of my enemies.
Picture this: A sparrow pecks at a few crumbs of bread. He is unaware of a trap. A string is pulled with a sudden jerk releasing a round, topless box, with a meshed bottom. The box traps the bird. He is taken prisoner, prisoner because of carelessness, inattention, unawareness of constant lurking dangers.
Poor sparrow! How alike we are!
It’s not hard to be trapped. The few safe moments I spend in the rhythm of sacredness, in the care of the Almighty, give me strength, nourishment, and are long lasting. Without them, the constant wiles of the dangerous one with his evil darts, are poised to pierce me, to penetrate my unguarded soul.
There is terror in the night of inattention. There is a barrage of lusts in the absence of constant prayer. Pestilence stalks the exposed soul, and in the noontime of despair, wasted by pride and self-sufficiency, I join the hordes whose lives make for good-for-burning hay and stubble. But these dangers are staid in the few moments when I gaze upward, when my feet are swift to find shelter under the Safe One, the Peaceful One, the Sacred and Holy One. You are my sacred hiding place!
What do you get out of journaling?
A Kindred Soul
September 13, 2008
Robert Benson has accompanied me on my spiritual journey for a while. His recent book in The Ancient Practices Series called In Constant Prayer is another companion I will cherish for a long time.
This series, by the way, promises to be helpful. It is edited by Phyllis Tickle of Divine Hours fame. First in the series is Brian McLaren’s Finding our Way Again. I love the connection this series makes with this deeply satisfying truth: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16).
Other books will appear in 2009: Sabbath by Dan Allender, Fasting by Scot McKnight of Jesus Creed fame, the Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher, The Pilgrimage by Diana Butler Bass, and in 2010 The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister, and Tithing by Douglas LeBlanc.
A few words from Benson about his book from the front flap:
I stumbled into the daily office when I was almost forty years old. And I have never quite recovered. I began my journey in the direction of a deeper prayer life as a pilgrim with some questions and a lot of time on my hands, armed with little more than a desire to see what might happen to me if I learned to pray the prayer that has been prayed by the community of saints for centuries…
What I hope to do here — with as little technical talk as possible — is open up some of the mystery of the daily office to those who have had little or no exposure to this ancient way of Christian prayer. I will also share about the benefits that can accrue to us if we begin to participate in this ancient tradition that has sustained the Church through the ages…
I have to tell you that this whole business of praying the daily office still astonishes and terrifies me. But I have been at it long enough to know at least this: of all the things I have ever written about or will ever write about, this is the one true thing that has come to matter to me the most.
Loitering for Treasure
September 12, 2008
The Scripture readings in Celtic Daily Prayer always include a passage from the Psalms, the OT, and the NT. A while back (on August 25) the following passages were combined. Psalm 127:1 which yielded this: God must be our main builder, and we also must build. Exodus 35:30-36:1 produced this: God gives his wisdom and creativity so that humans can do his work. We are performers of the work of God. John 15:26 brought in this: Without the presence and the indwelling of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit our work, our life, our service to others, will only testify to our own human ingenuity. But those who are Holy Spirit inhabited will testify about Him.
Often, the 3 daily Scripture readings in CDP are intended to intersect in some way. Some times the intersection is not readily discernible. When the intersection is discovered or revealed it is a blessing. A little lingering or loitering around the fountain of life will give up hidden treasures. The Scriptures that are chosen daily for the morning and evening hours could become part of our habit of meditation. Wasting time with God, paying close attention to Him at the fountain will yield profits and blessing comes to God and to us when we drink deeply there.
Taking the profits and reinvesting them in the work of the day, in the stolen leisurely minutes, in the joys of family responsibilities are the main reasons we created Missional Order (MO). Dallas Willard once gave John Ortberg advice and he has never gotten over it. The advice? “Be ruthless with eliminating hurry from your life”.
Ever feel guilty for wasting time with God? With so much to do, I sometimes do.
Beauty to Behold
September 10, 2008
A line in Psalm 27:4 is about beholding the beauty of the Lord. Beauty is not only to be seen and admired. This beauty of God is to be sought hard. Not because it is hard to seek but because it is worth everything to seek it and find it. Sometimes this feels like the Beast (me) seeking Bell (God) in the Beauty and the Beast.
The Message puts it this way: “I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.” Because Hebrew poetry works by parallel lines at times, it seems clear that to behold God’s beauty is synonymous with seeking him and studying him in his temple. Contemplation is the best word to describe seeking and studying God.
Contemplation is an especially good way to start the day well for missional order members. Ministry or work for most of us (as we know it in ourselves and in others) cannot claim much of contemplation or beholding the beauty of God. This Latin word with two parts. “Con” meaning “with, or together with” as in collaborate which is laboring with or together. Hundreds of English words use this Latin prefix. “Template” has the word temple embedded. A temple is where divinity dwells.
This then gives us the meaning that to contemplate is to be in the presence of and to be present to God. The Old Testament sense of the word is no passive thing as in sitting in a monkish position for hours on end being dead to my life, this world and its difficulty. It is rather a way of looking at my life, at life in general, in the presence of God. Believers look at life through the lens of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit. It is coming to terms with each new day being an opportunity for us to be with God and to see life once more with Christian eyes. It is, as Dallas Willard puts it, learning to do my life as if Christ were doing it in me.
So we must move away from contemplation as strictly a thinking thing (a mystical happening) to a robust and active consideration of life with God and others. Only then does contemplation become a way of life and life happens all the time, everywhere, with everyone, and in everything. Doing it with pen and paper is an excellent way.
What beauty have you seen lately?
Saying our Prayers
September 8, 2008
In the name of the Father, my light; of the Son, my shield; and the Holy Spirit my guide. How true it is!
Saying our prayers may be a novel idea for many of us. I began my walk with Christ with this thinking: “If it’s not spontaneous, it’s not spiritual.” Can prayer which is not spontaneous be authentic (i.e. from the heart)? Perhaps the observation and question have some validity. After all did Jesus not warn that “prayer sayers” are hypocrites who heap up words repeatedly?
I was stuck here for the longest time due to the power of suggestion upon a new Christian by well-meaning spiritual guides. My “stuckness” was not helping my growth in prayer. But I got over it. I got unstuck when I realized, first, that the Psalms, the prayer book of the church, are just that, written prayers (many turned into songs to aid memory perhaps).
The Psalms, in fact, are composed prayers that may have been initially spontaneous outbursts from broken or grateful hearts. The Psalms are literary pieces of writing, or poetry. There is a strong tradition in the Middle East of spontaneous poetry (I grew up there). But when one studies the spontaneity, there is much in it that is formulaic literariness. As such the psalmists’ words show the studied movements of the soul of individuals or the community that wrote them. Most of psalms are remembrances of life situations when the “prayer sayer” questioned his understanding of God and how God acts or does not act in life. Their value as written prayers comes from this reality. There is indeed nothing new under the sun.
Another thing that helped getting me unstuck is that Jeus quoted these Psalms on many occasions and seemed then to be saying his prayers. Of course, this isn’t the only way Jesus prayed (as John 17 shows). But Jesus did not shy away from the hundreds of years old tradition of saying his prayers.
A last helpful idea is that Jesus taught his disciples and us by extension to say prayers. In Luke 11:1 Jesus teaches his disciples to “say” or “repeat” the Lord’s prayer (Scot McKnight translates: When you pray, say, or repeat: “Father…” The combination of these three ideas have lessened my inhibition and have convinced me and now give me the freedom I need to say my prayers.
The one big influence on me that started me in this direction was John Baillie’s A Diary of Private Prayer.
What convinces you to say your prayers?
Monday Morning Closing Prayer
September 8, 2008
Lord, we are made in your image. Everything we are and have belongs to you. May you always be first in our hearts, in our thoughts, and in our actions. May we follow you in all things, even as we subvert the Empire. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
How can we ensure that He is always first in our thoughts and hearts? I most certainly need to pray this prayer often.
In the Name
September 1, 2008
Morning Prayer
Prayer begins when I realize that my life comes from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Basic to my relationship with God is the confession of his name. By calling on the name of the Trinity I awaken and activate my trust in the personal nature of God. To name is to personalize, to specify, to relate to the One who is named and the one who names.
It is important for me to give words to my faith and to give faith to my words. This is how I keep from the dangers of vain repetitions that Christ warns us about. Calling on the name of the Lord is a most basic utterance of deliverance: Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be rescued. Calling on the name of the Lord for salvation is not a one time affair. It is daily, even moment by moment to the very end of life.
By calling on the name of God I experience the vast difference between my creaturely nature and the eternal God I address. This comes from my constant quest for relationality, my craving to to respond to the personal invitation to have and audience with the ground of my being, the creator of the heavens and Earth. As a creature, it is how I name and pay attention to the constant, eternal, and near presence of the Trinity.
In what way is naming God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, helpful in your praying?
The Sign of the Cross
September 1, 2008
Morning prayer
The daily office in the Celtic Daily Prayer begins with the sign of the cross which is optional. Some who are not in the habit (pun unintended) experience some discomfort with body gestures accompanying prayer. This is worth exploring for yourself.
Often I used to jump into saying my prayers without much first pausing to consider what I was about to do. I discovered that my tendency to hurry plays into this. In order to slow myself down, I began to experiment with the sign of the cross.
What started as a technique for eliminating hurry in prayer has become now a holy moment of reflection, composure, and paying attention to paying attention to God. Doing the sign of the cross reminds me where I stand. Before a Holy God who is interested in my presence to Him. The beginning of prayer happens when I respond to the standing invitation to enter into the presence of the Holy Trinity. I invite myself and accept the invitation into this Holiness through the sign of the cross.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the_cross#Origins_of_the_sign_of_the_cross) .
Google “sign of the cross” to learn more about this sign.
The origin of this sign, which is common among Catholic and Orthodox Christians, predates both (between 100-200 A.D.). I confess that I felt sheepish when I started “crossing myself” again as an evangelical Christian. But I got over it. Now, more often than not, I take my time doing the sign of the cross and have developed a little Liturgy of the Sign.
I start by signing a cross on my forehead as I say, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Keep my thoughts pure and renew my mind today O Holy Trinity.”
I continue by signing a cross over my heart as I say, “guard my heart today O Holy Trinity as from it flow fountains of life.”
I end with crossing both shoulders saying “help me to use my strength for
You, O Holy Trinity. Amen.”
Another liturgy I use as I cross myself are the words of Psalm 1. Bless me O Holy Trinity as I follow not the advice of the wicked; or take not the path that sinners tread; or sit not in the seat of scoffers.
How do you feel about the sign of the cross? Do you practice it? What does it mean for you?
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