More about Prayer....

I was going through the list of prayer quotes I have stashed away in Evernote. I came upon a quote that I wanted to include in this series of posts. I hadn’t saved the source of the quote. A quick copy and paste into Google provided the answer right away. The source was Richard Rohr. He said:

The traditional and most universal word to describe a different access to truth was simply “to pray about something.” But that lovely word “prayer” has been so deadened by pious use and misuse that we now have to describe this different mental attitude with new words. I am going to introduce a different word here, so you can perceive in a fresh way, and perhaps appreciate what we mean by contemplation. The word is “resonance.”
Prayer is actually setting out a tuning fork. All you can really do in the spiritual life is get tuned to receive the always-present message. Once you are tuned, you will receive, and it has nothing to do with worthiness or the group you belong to, but only inner resonance and a capacity for mutuality (Matthew 7:7-11). The Sender is absolutely and always present and broadcasting; the only change is with the receiver station.

Or as Anne Lamott wrote in her book, “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

....when you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

One of the sites that popped up in the Google search results led to a blog called “Progressive Redneck Preacher.” He published a post about a week ago entitled “Tuning into the Sacred Song: Our Week in the Living Word.” He included the tuning fork quote in that post.

He mainly wrote about a type of prayer called Breath Prayer. (and his experience with it over the course of a week) A breath prayer is a short phrase uttered soundlessly to the rhythm of our breathing….inhaling and exhaling. Examples that I particularly like…..

Inhale – “Peace”

Exhale – “Be still”

Or how about this one….that fits well with this type of prayer

Inhale – “Closer is He than breathing”

Exhale – “Nearer than hands and feet”

You get the idea. There were several links in the post that led to some websites that went into this prayer (and others) in more detail. I looked around a bit online and couldn’t find any sites better than two of the ones he listed;

Ten Ways to Pray

and

Soul Shepherding

The effectiveness of this prayer (in quieting our body and mind and in honing our listening to God skills) seems to be a blending of the physical and the spiritual. We all know that deep, slow rhythmic breathing calms the body. Take a deep breath. Calm down. Take ten deep breaths. Calm down even more. Sometimes when I am very, very stressed I realize I am barely breathing at all. Short, shallow, hardly there intakes of air. No wonder I feel anxious. I’m suffocating.

I have a thing about the dentist. Not a good thing either. It isn't really about the pain. It is more about the claustrophobic feeling that comes with tubes that suck and spray, grinding drills and all those hands in my face. Keith reminded me once to take deep, calming breaths. It was one of the methods he used to help his scared silly skydiving students stay calm enough to focus as they jumped out of the airplane.

The slow, steady breathing involved with this kind of prayer coupled with a calming phrase from or about scripture seems a perfect combination. On the site that talked about various ways to pray, they recommended using your ten fingers to count…yep…ten deep prayer breaths and then pausing to offer a praise or a petition or even just a moment of silent contemplation. 

And in one of the articles I read, they used Anne Lamott’s simple prayer from Traveling Mercies as an example of a Breath Prayer.

Here are the two best prayers I know:“Help me, help me, help me” and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Turn that into a Breath Prayer....

Inhale – Help me, help me, help me

Exhale – Thank you, thank you thank you

More coming about different ways to help us pray....

Max and Anne - Views on Prayer

While scrolling down through my Facebook feed, I came upon a snippet of an interview on the 700 Club with Max Lucado. Max is my all-time favorite Christian author. His book, He Still Moves Stones, was one of the first Christian books I ever read. I love his writing style….I love how clearly he expresses the love of God for his children. 

They talked about two things in the interview:

His support of Husain Abdullah in a recent USA editorial where he said:

Which is why the sight of Abdullah, a Muslim who sat out the 2012 season to go on a pilgrimage, being penalized was hard to watch. Tim Tebow brought gridiron prayer to the forefront with his iconic kneeling in gratitude. And countless other professional football players have been seen kneeling in an end zone prayer. 

For decades competitors have bowed their heads, crossed their hearts, kissed their rosaries and lifted their eyes to heaven as they sought favor on the fields of competition. Is a little petition or gratitude so bad? If the act is sincere toward God as opposed to insincere, for show, what is the harm?

Indeed, what is the harm? And while so many evangelical Christians got themselves all worked up at Tebow’s critics, where was the outrage about Abdullah’s fifteen yard penalty? Oh yeah…..he was bowing to the “wrong” God.  I think it was quite gutsy of Max to come out in support of Abdullah.   
         

And anyway, the story had a happy ending because the NFL apologized and said the official was wrong and that players can, indeed, pray.

The other topic of the interview was his new book, Before Amen. Max admits to being a prayer wimp. He’s mentioned his difficulties with prayer in other books he's written. He said “doing something for God” comes more naturally to him that “praying to God.” (That is a paraphrase, by the way) Through the years he’s developed what he refers to as the pocket prayer. He studied all the prayers in the Bible and summed them up into six short sentences.

Father, You are good. I need help. So do they. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

I love it. He succinctly sums it all up in those short sentences.

I rarely say a traditional prayer. I truly believe I always have God’s ear. I feel like he is paying attention as I go about my day….typing reports, checking my email, eating lunch, going to the bathroom.  Doesn’t “pray without ceasing” mean that I thank him for small blessings throughout the day, tell him I love him, ask his to watch over my children or let him know I am quite miffed at the way he is allowing some things to play out.

Anne Lamott (another of my favorites) also has a book out about prayer. In my next post (no, not an empty promise) I’ll talk about “Help, Thanks, Wow: The ThreeEssential Prayers” by Anne Lamott.  

God be with you….and I mean it….

I happened upon a blog post yesterday…on my google reader feed entitled "Praying Them Home" on the Daily Episcopalian.  The post talked a lot about prayer....and the cloud of unknowing we join in shared prayer. 

In the post, the author (Maria L. Evans) tells the story of an encounter with a gravely ill man who was determined to embark on a long journey back to his homeland, postponing medical treatment. She tried to convince him of the very serious, possibly fatal, risk he was taking but he would not relent. Her conclusion?

All of us have times in our lives where despite our best efforts, our good intentions, and our fears for those we love, they will make their choices and we are left with no other tasks but to let them go, and "pray them home." I realized I had tried my best, and did what I could. As I left to go back to my office, I told him, "God be with you. I mean that."

A sentiment most parents, especially parents of teenagers or young adults, can totally identify with.  Let go and let God to the n'th degree.  Very. Difficult. To. Do.

Being the queen of the worst case scenario, I tend to let my imagination run away with me. I know it, my family knows it and it’s become a good natured, standing joke.

My daughter Emily posted a picture on my FB wall....ahhh, I mean my FB Timeline....the other day poking fun. She shared it with her sister, Beth. 

         

Point taken. And the truth of the matter is….the “paring knife” is usually…just a paring knife.  But every once in a while, the paring knife REALLY is a hatchet in disguise.  Our kids face dangers every day…the real ones and the ones that live in a mother’s imagination.  Sometimes the only option is to try to quiet our fears, accept their choices and simply pray “God be with you.”

Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in….

After a year long (and then some) hiatus, I’ve been hitting the gym just about every morning. I’ve been getting up early (as usual) but instead of lollygagging around on the internet sipping a strong “not for wimps” cup of coffee for an hour or more, I’ve been heading out to my cold, frost covered car and driving to Planet Fitness.  Once there, I read the blogs I’ve saved in google reader and other miscellaneous stuff I’ve earmarked to read…on my Kindle 3 while pedaling or hoofing it on the treadmill.  Killing two birds with one stone.

I suspect some insights and thoughts are a result of the endorphins that are circulating through my system.  I’ve read there is a difference in the way the brain processes thoughts when you are exercising.

I’ve gotten so many ideas for blog posts, I’m pondering a new  “at the gym” tag. We’ll see.  No telling how long this early morning exercise resolution will hang on. 

The idea for this post came, not from google reader or anything saved on my kindle, but from the Planet Fitness music blaring from their speakers.  Usually an annoyance that fades to the background, these lyrics captured my attention. 

“I’m still alive but I’m barely breathing”

“Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in”

The song is called Breakeven from The Script.  It is an ode to lost love.  An “I’m dying here while you are out there living it up” song.  The song emphasizes that he is “falling to pieces.”

It made me think about how often we turn to the god that we “don’t believe in” when our world is crashing down around us and we are “falling to pieces.” 

Wasn’t is C.S. Lewis, no stranger to incredible pain when he lost his beloved wife, Joy, who penned the words

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. --C.S. Lewis

And George MacDonald said this

As cold as everything looks in winter, the sun has not forsaken us. He has only drawn away for a little, for good reasons, one of which is that we may learn that we cannot do without him. --George MacDonald

And there is the oft repeated “no atheists in foxholes” quote.

I won’t get into the perpetual, seemingly unanswerable question of whether God merely allows or directly causes our suffering.  I suspect it’s a bit of both and not strictly an either or thing.  But he uses our distress as his megaphone to break thought our deafness.  Many times when we have nowhere else to go, we turnj to the god that we don’t believe in….and find, to our utter amazement, that he is indeed there. 

My “testimony” is a variation of that very theme. 

I’m including a video of the song in this post.  Videos come and go on You Tube, so it will inevitably become a dead link.  I think it’s really interesting what they do with the photographs in the video. 

 

Rending and Bending Hearts….

I came across two snippets about the heart the other day...via a website that posts daily lectionary based devotionals called The Daily Office.  A new one every day...contents include prayers/  intercessions/ scripture/etc. There are headings like... Collect of the Day / Benediction/ Invitatory/ Jubilate/ Antiphon/ Old Testament Lesson/ New Testament Lesson/ Prayers (guided and scripted) Canticles.  It resounds with ritual and convention....as in stained glass windows, heavy oak pews, ornate communion vessels. It comes across as very "high church" Pretty much the polar opposite of my flying by the seat of my pants, haphazard style of "quiet time." The site is called the The Daily Office from the Mission of St. Clare. 

Probably because it is the season of Lent and Easter, the theme is repentance. The two snippets that caught my attention and stuck in my thoughts are about the heart.  One is from a short book in the Apocrypha called The Prayer of Manasseh.  The other from the book of Joel. 

I found a few articles about the Prayer of Manasseh...following is a brief, concise description of the prayer found in a post on The Daily Episcopalian.

This Manasseh was a king of Judah, reigning from (roughly) 687-642 BC. And, as far as 2 Kings 21 was concerned, he wins the Worst King of Judah EVER award. The shortlist is idolatry, sacrificing his own children, and widespread murder… The version that 2 Chronicles 33 tells has a twist, though; here he’s carried off to Babylon where he prays a great prayer of repentance, God forgives him, and he returns to try to reverse the evil he has done. 

Another resource I found says this....

Most scholars believe that the prayer was originally composed in Greek, but for such a short book—about 400 words in English—the problem of determining the original language is difficult. Because the Prayer of Manasseh survives both in Greek and in Syriac, Latin (two forms), Ethiopic, Armenian, and Old Slavonic translation, it was clearly popular in the first three Christian centuries, among both Jews and Christians. 

Check out more information HERE

Daniel J. Harrington writes: "What were the words of Manasseh's prayer? Inquiring minds wanted to know. According to 2 Chronicles 33:18-19 the words were preserved in 'the Annals of the Kings of Israel' and in 'the records of the seers.' But neither of these books has been preserved. The Prayer of Manasseh represents what an anonymous author imagined that Manasseh should have said or would have said in his prayer. It was most likely composed in Greek and reflects the language and style of the Septuagint. It is included in some Septuagint manuscripts in a special section called 'Odes.' The most important versions are in Latin and Syriac, and it is included in church manuals from the third and fourth centuries C.E. (Apostolic Constitutions and Didaskalia). The earliest evidence for the work's existence comes from the third century C.E., so it could have originated at any time between the composition of 2 Chronicles and then. It was probably written by a Greek-speaking Jew outside the land of Israel, though Christian authorship is not impossible." (Invitation to the Apocrypha, pp. 166-167)   

So the gist of this is that The Prayer of Manasseh is not the exact prayer Manasseh prayed...and it was written much later, long after Manasseh was gone.  But it is what he could have, should have, might have said.  And perhaps God laid the exact words on the heart of the anonymous author of The Prayer because it really is a great prayer.  A quote by Madeleine L'Engle I happened upon sums it up quite well....

"Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous."

and in another place a variation of that same thought....

it's truth, not fact, and you have to take truth seriously even when it expands beyond the facts.

The beginning of the prayer finds "Manasseh" describing the majesty, splendor, power and glory of God.  In verse 7 he focuses on the mercy of God....

for You are the Lord Most High, compassionate, patient, and merciful

And then he declares his version of "God be merciful to me a sinner." like the tax collector in the temple.

For I have sinned more than the number of sand of the sea; my lawless deeds are multiplied, O Lord, multiplied, and I am not worthy to look and see the heights of heaven because of the multitude of my unrighteous deeds.

And let’s just say that, in spite of the hyperbole, Manasseh was not really overstating the case.  He HAD INDEED sinned.  Among his many crimes….he shot down all the reforms his father Hezekiah had put in place.  He brought back idol worship, rebuilt the altars of Baal and profaned the temple. And he sacrificed his sons in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. Some add the murder of Isaiah to Manasseh’s rap sheet.  Method of execution?  Isaiah was sawed in half.

So…Manasseh was definitely not a nice guy. And he was well aware of this when he knelt to pray. 

In verse 11 he utters my favorite words of the prayer....

And now I bend the knee of my heart, begging for your clemency.

Another version words it thusly....

And now I bend the knee of my heart, beseeching thee for thy kindness.

To wrap this post up (but to be continued in another post) here is one more quote from the Daily Episcopalian….

Then, in a beautiful mixed metaphor, the poet “bends the knee of my heart,” not in excuses or self-justification, but in pure supplication. In these words there is absolute conviction of two things: first, the poet’s sinfulness; second, the character of God—that our God is the God who forgives.

And it is the sentiment about “not in excuses or self justification, but in pure supplication” that brings me to the verse in Joel…in my next post.

At the Butler Hospital – You Are Awesome In This Place…

Written ‘now”
The following post was written during my mom’s hospitalization and surgery to have a faulty, leaky valve replaced.  She has been plagued with complication after complication requiring more and more invasive, painful, frightening procedures.  I was there for the surgery (6 days prior to and 6 days after) but she has gone through the past week alone. Yesterday she had to endure another surgery…with full anesthesia.. to drain fluid and blood from her lungs. It was hard being here while she is there, alone.  They didn’t know the extent…if they would be able to do it through 2 small incisions or if they would have to do the open heart thing again.  Fortunately the least invasive procedure seems to have worked and she is doing well.  Thank goodness. I am weary for this to end.  And she probably feels like she is lost in some macabre nightmare.
I still believe what I wrote in the following post.  That God is there…that he is in fact…everywhere.  The other day my daughter Emily posted the following “verse” on her FB wall….
‎"You were made with a purpose. The God of this universe will hold your hand through everyday of your life, for every laugh and every moment that takes your breath away. For the moments, the phone calls, and the news that make your heart drop and turn your world upside down. Yeah, my God is big enough for those moments as well."
I googled it…thinking it must be scripture from The Message Bible or lyrics to a song…but I couldn’t find it.  When I asked her about it later she said it was from one of her old journals. She wrote it.  She is indeed one of the living epistles the Bible speaks of. 
My post follows…but really…how can I improve on the sentiments expressed by my 17 year old daughter? 
Written “then”
I feel God all over the place in this hospital. Perhaps because I am not in patient care areas in the hospital where I work, I don’t notice it as much.  Perhaps it is because I am out of my normal, usual surroundings here (and very, very homesick) Maybe I am more attuned/ receptive to spiritual things here than at home… figuring out when to go to the grocery store....and the timing of other mundane tasks. Time has lost its meaning this past week.  Almost like it has been suspended.  I'm in a time warp.  A bubble...
Perhaps that is why I notice that the air here is heavy with His presence.  Almost tangible. 
Here in this hospital, the family of heart surgery patients wait in the ICU Waiting Room.  On the day of my mom’s surgery, I was there early...long before regular visiting hours began.  The solitude in the room was interrupted when, one by one, members of a big family started to arrive.  They were distraught.  Some of them were crying. Some of them were hugging.  One woman started to sob.  Let's face it....the waiting room in ICU is often not a very happy place. 
A woman who was part of the group struck up a conversation with me by the coffee pots.  She was here from Florida.  Her best friend was the ICU patient.  She came to say goodbye to her friend.  That morning they were removing life support.  She told me her friend and her family were all believers.  Strong believers.  Later, I heard them say that one by one they went in and said their goodbyes.  Then they all gathered in the room to be with her when she died.  Very sad.  Yet, I felt Him there with that family. 
I feel Him now...sitting in the lobby waiting for ICU visiting hours.  He permeates this place.
A song has stuck in my head for the past few weeks.  I listened to it a couple of times this morning....sitting here typing on my mini dell.  And it occurs to me that it is true.  No matter what place we find ourselves in....He is there.  And He is Awesome.  And He is “big enough.” Video follows....

God is just as much in your enemy as in your closest friend…..

We’ve been busy.  We went away this weekend…back to Uniontown to a church thing at the United Christian Temple, the church our friends Susan and Galen Winebrenner pastor.  We were blessed by the fellowship and the message.  They are wonderful people. 

But I’ve fallen a bit behind in the series I was writing…

This morning while surfing about willy nilly on the web, I came upon a rather odd yoga blog…I happened upon a writing about friendship by Paramhansa Yogananda From Clarity Magazine - Winter, 2006. 

It kind of fits with what I’m writing about….by making us think about who is (or who should be) our friend.  Copy and paste of several excerpts below…

Extend the boundaries of your friendship-
True friendship is broad and inclusive. Family love is merely one of the first lessons in the Divine Teacher’s “Course in Friendliness,” intended to prepare your heart for an all-inclusive love. Extend the boundaries of your love to include your neighbors, your community, your country, and all countries.
Consider no one a stranger. Feel that the life-blood of God is circulating in the veins of all races. We are Americans or Hindus for just a few years, but we are God’s children forever. The soul cannot be confined within man-made boundaries.

The antidote to all hatred-
There are people you see each day for whom you feel no sympathy. Learn to adapt to them, and to love them. Always practice loving those who do not love you, feeling for those who do not feel for you, and being generous to those who are generous only to themselves.
To be a true friend to all, you must learn to see that God is just as much in your enemy as in your closest friend. Constant contact with the Infinite in meditation will fill you with divine love, which alone enables you to love your enemies.
The heart’s love is the antidote all hatred. If someone is broadcasting hatred to you and you are tuned to that hatred, you will receive it, but if you are tuned to love, the hateful vibrations will not touch you.
You need not fawn on your enemy, but silently be of service to him whenever he is in need. If humility and apologies on your part bring out your enemy’s good qualities, by all means apologize.
The person who can do this will have attained a certain spiritual development, for it takes character to be able to apologize graciously and sincerely. Do not, however, encourage a wrong doer by being humble and apologetic.

And the really, really hard part…..

To be a true friend to all, you must learn to see that God is just as much in your enemy as in your closest friend. Constant contact with the Infinite in meditation will fill you with divine love, which alone enables you to love your enemies.

God On Trial...

Another digression from the current series...a digression that was initially birthed as a digression from a series I was writing several months ago.  I started this post about "God on Trial" after watching the movie with Keith...but never got around to finishing it.

Imagine that.

I feel compelled to post it now because otherwise, it could get lost among the topics I want to post about someday....and also because it goes along with the posts I've written lately about Bonhoeffer.

  Like Bonhoeffer, the characters in God on Trial are in a Nazi prison camp.  They also have lots of unanswered questions.  True, the characters are fictitious but their questions are not.  They are as old as time.  Almost everyone has asked these same questions at some point or another. They have been whispered in imploring prayers.  They have been shouted angrily to the heavens. They have been used as proof by skeptics.

This movie is for anyone who has ever questioned the God of the Old Testament, the book of Job, the God who allows suffering and evil to exist in the world.  It tackles free will, and atheism, humanism, the covenant with the Jews.  This is all set against the bleak backdrop of a Nazi prison camp.

There is an interesting cast of characters.  Some are believers.  Some not.  Some are Jews.  Some not.  Some are honorable men. Some not. Among them are rabbis, fathers, sons, thieves, businessmen, craftsman, con men. 

During a morbid kind of lottery...where the group is separated into two smaller groups, half of them chosen for the gas chambers the next day.  The prisoners can only guess which group will live and which will die when morning comes.  It is the last night for some of them. 

How do they spend the night?  They put put God on trial.  They seek to decide for themselves, once and for all.... If God is good and all powerful, why is there evil?  If he can stop evil and does not is he good?  If he wants to stop the evil but cannot, is he all powerful? It is riveting

Following is a YouTube video...an eloquent 10 minute summation, given by Akiba, an old-fashioned Rabbi from the countryside. He is a Melamed, or religious teacher, and a healer who has committed holy writings to memory. Although quiet for most of the trial, when Akiba eventually speaks, everyone is drawn to him.

And does he ever say a mouthfull. He recites a a laundry list of many of the atrocities and unfair, cruel doings attributed to the God of the OT.  One does not have to look too hard to find many, many atrocities. 

Particularly poignant, is his comparison of their plight to the plights of some of the people Adonia's wrath was vented against in the OT.

He muses:

For the Egyptians, the Amalekites...what was it like for them when Adonai turned against them?  It was like this.

He asks (knowing full well the answer)

Today there was a selection, yes?  When David defeated the Moabites, what did he do?

Schmidt a well-educated Rabbi appointed the Father of the Court, replies:

He made them lie on the ground in lines and he chose one to live and two to die. 

Akiba continues:

We have become the Moabites.  We are learning how it was for the Amalekites.  They faced extinction at the hand of Adonai.  They died for his purpose.  They fell as we are falling.  They were afraid as we are afraid.  And what did they learn?  They learned that Adonai, the Lord our God, OUR God, is not good.  He is not good.  He was not ever good.  He was only on our side.

He goes on to talk about the Flood, God's demand of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.  He repeats the sad conviction he has come to about God...

He is not good...he has simply been strong.  He has simply been on our side. 

And he's not finished....

When we were brought here we were brought by train.  A guard slapped my face.  On their belts they had written  "God is with us."  Now who is to say he is not?  Perhaps he is.  Is there any other explanation?  What do we see here?  His power, his majesty, his might.  All these things...but turned against us.  He is still God...but not our God.  He has become our enemy....

That's what's happened to the covenant.  He has made a new covenant with someone else.

 

 

Plot spoiler...God does not fare well in the final verdict. 

I rewatched parts of the movie tonight.  It is available in its entirety in four parts HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. 

Akiba's number is among those called to go to the gas chamber.  When another prisoner, one who has declared he does not believe in God, is also called, he panics and implores of Akiba, "What do we do now." And Akiba's answer?

Now, we pray...

And they covered their heads with their hands and prayed....and they continued to pray as they were led into the gas chambers to die...

Without quoting the chapter and verse, they demonstrated by their actions....as Job did....

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.....

Explore Faith.org

I came upon the Explore Faith web site a while back...saved it in the queue of ideas for just such a time as this....when I have not posted for three days...and when all the half formed ideas that are banging into each other in my brain have not seemed to congeal into a stream of words lucid enough to become a blog post.  Perhaps the ideas are in the process of coming to "fruition."  You know...ripening.  Although I know some might see them as far past ripe (which is synonymous with RIGHT) but that is the subject of another post.  (oh great....more stuff to churn around up there and "ferment")

Anyway, I came upon the site Explore Faith a while back, saved it in the queue...checked it out a bit yesterday here at home and yesterday at work during a break.  It is an interesting site...slanted heavily toward the Christian perspective, but inclusive at the same time. There is a page with links to articles about other religious traditions...but it is a small portion of the site.  

There are articles about prayer, meditation, peaceful living, parenting, oneness, everyday spirituality, an eclectic page of links, guided journaling, etc.  Worth a visit. You will find much food for thought there. 

Desmond Doss - "I couldn't picture Christ with a rifle killing people."

During New Year's break, Keith watched a movie about Desmond Doss...The Conscientious Objector. It is the true story of Desmond Doss, a World War II veteran who joined the army to serve his country, yet refused to carry a gun or harm the enemy. He did not believe in killing...simply stated...

"I couldn't picture Christ with a rifle killing people."

Wikipedia says:

Desmond Doss refused to kill, or carry a weapon into combat, because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. He thus became a medic, and by serving in the Pacific theatre of World War II helped his country by saving the lives of his comrades, while also adhering to his religious convictions.

He was tormented by his fellow soldiers, mocked and ridiculed for refusing to carry a gun. Yet he stuck to his beliefs and showed a selfless, christlike attitude toward those who tormented him.

In an article in the Advent News Network the producer of the documentary, Terry Benedict, talks about the profound effect Desmond Doss had on reconnecting him with his faith:

"You think you're living the good Christian life, walking in faith, but when I started the project, I learned what it really meant to walk in faith," Benedict said. Doss, the filmmaker added, "is always at peace and I've learned how to be at peace when everything is breaking out around you. There was no way I couldn't be affected [by Doss' story] and not be a better person."

And when President Roosevelt presented Doss with the medal of honor he said:

“I am proud of you. You really deserve this. I consider this a greater honor than being President.”

Doss was the first conscientious objectors to be awarded the Medal of Honor. (There has been one other conscientious objector awarded the medal of honor.....Thomas Bennet, from the Vietnam War) Doss single handedly...amidst whizzing bullets from the Japanese, lowered seventy five wounded soldiers to safety using a rope he rigged with two loops. He put the legs of the wounded in the loops, wrapped them up in the rope and lowered them down. Most of the men had to be dragged to the escarpment's edge. Doss weighed about 150 lbs. He prayed the entire time...

"Lord, help me get one more. Just ONE more."

After the last man was evacuated, Doss himself made his way to safety. His commanding officer determined that Doss had lowered one hundred men down the cliff....but Doss thought it was probably closer to fifty...so they compromised on seventy five.

One of the articles I read mentioned that once Doss tried to tend to a wounded Japanese soldier. One of the American soldiers with Doss told him that if helped the enemy he would have to kill him. I imagine that Doss' heart was so filled with the love and compassion of Jesus, it didn't matter to him whether the wounded soldier was Japanese or American. He saw a brother in need of help.

What a great story...a true story...of faith and courage. To read more about Doss check out the article HERE and HERE.

Anne Lamott on Prayer

Tomorrow it's back to work after four days off for Christmas.  I would really like to know how four days can go by so fast. 

And alas...alas....while I did do some blog "research" and "organizing," I did not post as much as I had planned.  And the time is tick, tick, ticking away...so...I am going to post a few Anne Lamott quotes that deal with prayer (which was a recent, pre-Christmas topic here) The first two are from her book, "Plan B, Further Thoughts on Faith."  The last one is from her book "Traveling Mercies." 

I've been (very slowly) reading her three latest books...marking page after page with florescent green post its so I can come back later and find the "quoteworthy" quotes. The woman is brilliant.  I plan to write more about her in the future.  Her thoughts resonate.

But tonight, in lieu of a post that might require much writing on my part, I am going to post what she has to say about prayer...and perhaps a comment or two here or there. 

About answers to prayer:

The problem with God, or at least the top five annoying things about God is that He or She rarely answers right away.  It can take days,weeks. Some people seem to understand this--that life and change take time. I, on the other hand, am an instant message type. 

Uh huh...yep...I know just how she feels. 

....when you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress. 

Perhaps why Paul reminds us to "pray without ceasing?"

And from Traveling Mercies:

Here are the two best prayers I know:    
"Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."  A woman I know says for her morning prayer, "Whatever" and for the evening,"Oh, well,"

And now since it is definitely time for bed, my bedtime prayer might as well be...what else...

Oh well...

Amen Revisited

The following quote from Mother Teresa came from the World Prayers website I mentioned in my last post on prayer. 

Prayer is not asking.
Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God,
at his disposition,
and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.

mother teresa - in her own words

Yeah...I like that.  I'm not there yet, of course, because my prayers are often made up of "please help me" and "please do...or do not (depending on the situation)...allow this or that happen." But "thank you" peppers my prayer life as often as "please" so I am getting there.  This quote also reminds me of a tidbit definition I found while looking around the world wide web for commentary on the word "Amen."

From Questions and Answers on the Liturgy of the Church of England

Q. What is the meaning of Amen at the end of this and other prayers?
A. It means, so let it be, or, my heart agrees with my tongue.

Hmmmm....something to think about.  How many times does the heart disagree with the tongue?! And not just in prayer...but in our everyday interactions with others...our family, our friends, our peers? How many times are our words insincere...simply "lip service" meant to appease, convince, placate, manipulate?  And what about the opposite end of the spectrum?  Those who, without hesitation, "speak their minds" with little thought of who might be hurt?  Sometimes in our human interactions "telling it like it is" might not always be the best policy?

But when we pray...especially when we pray....shouldn't our hearts agree with our tongues? It's not as if he is unaware of what dwells within each and every heart. Eloquent, pious, high sounding words offered up in the best "king james english" are not going to fool him one bit. When we pray I think it is best to "call a spade a spade" and bare our hearts to God.  Another snippet from a book called Religious Instruction For Young Children by Elizabeth Mayo touches on that thought...

The meaning of "Amen" is, "So be it," or "So it shall be;" and when we use it, we declare that we believe what has been said to be true.  We give our assent to it.  By this word, we mark, that we have joined in spirit in the prayer or praises offered up by another.  What mockery and impiety to use this solemn word at the end of prayer, when our thoughts and wishes have been wandering after other things. 

And in another snippet from The Companion to the Book of Common Worship by Peter C. Bower

......"Amen," a Hebrew word meaning "So be it!" or "I agree!"  "Amen" does not mean, "I'm finished now, so you can open your eyes."  Rather, "Amen" means "I am with you" or "I concur," and, therefore, belongs by definition, to the assembled congregation.  "Amen" is a word to be spoken or sung by the people, not the leader. 

So perhaps we should not mutter "Amen" during corporate worship if what we've been contemplating is nothing more spiritual than what entree we will order when we hit Denny's for lunch after the service.

More on Amen in my next post....

Amen...

I came upon a web site a while back...World Prayers.  Self described below:

The objective of this website is to gather the great prayers written by the spiritual visionaries of our planet into an online database representing all life affirming traditions. Many of these prayers have been used for hundreds if not thousands of years. Others are from spiritual contemporaries in today's intricate global fabric. Though these sacred verses arise from divergent paths, voices, languages, cultures and heritages, they all carry within them the same burning flame - the same impassioned love for life and the divine mysteries.

There are hundreds of prayers on this site "representative of all life affirming faiths and spiritual practices." They are divided into the following categories:

 ADORATIONS
Prayers of devotion, surrender, love, praise and offering.
CELEBRATIONS
Prayers of thanksgiving, initiation, affirmation and blessing.
INVOCATIONS
Prayers of petition, supplication, calling forth and healing.
MEDITATIONS
Prayers of reflection, contemplation, being and teaching.

The site is searchable by author, tradition, source, type, keyword and quote.  There are more than a dozen traditions listed...

• African Traditional
• Asatru
• Baha'i Faith
• Buddhism
• Celtic
• Children
• Christianity
• Confucianism
• Gaian
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Jainism
• Judaism
• Native American
• Sikhism
• Sufism
• Taoism
• Zoroastrian

Many of the prayers were more poemlike than prayerlike. Many (most) expressed my own thoughts and beliefs, worded a bit different than I might put it...but still expressing a viewpoint, an understanding of God that I share.  Prayers that I can wrap up in my own heart and mind with "Amen."

I've heard Keith say many times that Amen is the equivalent of "Those are my words."  Meaning that the prayer so reflects the  heart and beliefs of the listener that to add anything would be redundant. 

I like that.  I've experienced that many times with prayers...and with quotes, which are snippets of encapsulated truths...broken down to their lowest integer.  My favorite quotes are those which take profound truths and express them in a bare bones fashion...not all dressed up and wordy.

Tomorrow I am going to look a little more closely at the word "Amen" and pepper the post with some quotes (a few a bit wordy) and interesting facts that I found in the "virtually" unending resource library available on...the World Wide Web. 

The Lord will Perfect That Which Concerns Me

Oftentimes, when something flips my "that would make a good blog post" switch...stuff floods into my head in multiples. Information, old and new, stored in the archives of my brain.  A snippet here...a quote there...a book, a blog post, something someone posted to one of the online forums where I participate.  They come in groups...sometime rushing in faster than I can keep track of.  This post happened like that.

I was reading in the book of Psalms and came upon:

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. Psalm 138:6-

And I remembered something that had been posted earlier on EU...from a devotional by Chip Brogden that goes really well with the verse.

WATER INTO WINE
“His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it’” (John 2:5).

“Whatever He says to you, do it.”
If we would only heed this advice from Mary. To be sure she has learned this in years gone by. Through many experiences she has at last learned where to go. Her automatic reflex now is to go to Jesus and lay the problem at His feet: “They have no wine.” That is all. In this relationship she makes no demands, she does not even ask Him outright to do something. He knows what she means. It is an understanding that is borne out of relationship.

And so the water was turned into wine. This Scripture says that in this way He “showed forth His glory” (John 2:11). “Showing forth His glory” is another way of saying He revealed something of Himself. This, brothers and sisters, is the whole purpose for the trial you find yourself in. It may be that you have no oil, no bread, no fish, or no wine. Whatever the situation, bring your problem to the Lord of Infinite Supply, and do whatever He says to do. He wishes to reveal His glory in you. He longs to see His Power displayed through your weakness. The very thing you see as a problem is really an opportunity to see Jesus in a depth you cannot otherwise see.

 

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.  Like Mary, in the story above, we do not even have to ask him outright to do something.  He knows what we mean.  He knows what to do. 

Whatever the situation, bring your problem to the Lord of Infinite Supply, and do whatever he says to do. 

More on Prayer....

And today...carrying over last night's activities...still cruising the internet....reading, writing, pondering.  It is overcast today, rainy...with rain predicted throughout the day.  Good excuse to spend a large chunk of the day reading, writing, pondering and cruising the internet.  Keith does not seem to object to the plan.  I am sure we will venture out to Denny's later for lunch/dinner but for the most part I rather enjoy the view from my resting place here on the couch. 

We've been hitting Denny's a lot lately because of the steady stream of coupons that we keep finding in the paper and in our mailbox.  BOGO's abound.  Gotta' love BOGO's.  If the point of coupons is to lure more customers into their restaurants, well, it has definitely worked with us.  Our visits to Denny's have increased exponentially. The more coupons we get, the more visits we make.  And they have THE best pancakes...

But.....I digress!!  :-)

In my internet meanderings this morning, I came upon a book on Google Books called Poor Old God, He Always Gets the Blame By Arlene Claire Cartwright. The author talks about the way many of us pray:

We have been led to build barriers between God and ourselves.  Most never pray or yearn to see God because they've been told that that's impossible.  So, instead, when they pray, they ask God for what they need and thank Him for what they have.  Although many of us were taught as children that prayer is a lifting up of our minds and hearts to God, whenever groups get together to pray, the talking usually starts almost immediately--please, please, please; thank you, thank you, thank you.

No wonder why many never experience contemplative prayer or see God.  God is never given a chance to say a word or to reveal His magnificence. 

No wonder so many keep asking God to take good care of them and their families.  God is never given a chance to reveal that He cares for more than we do.

God cannot seem to get a word in edgewise.  As Neale Walsh says in one of his Conversations With God books:

God is speaking to everyone all the time. The question is not to whom does God talk, but who listens. This is clarified by the statement that God can communicate with you in the next song you hear, the next breeze that caresses your ear, the next conversation you overhear. "All these devices are mine. All these avenues are open to me. I will speak to you if you invite me."

Answers From Your I AM Self...

The following quote is from the daily devotional section on

William Starcke's web site:

September 1 SEE YOURSELF AS I SEE YOU

Pray for yourself as though you were praying for someone else. Stand aside and see yourself and your problems as though your human-self is someone who has called you for help. Ask yourself questions and then listen to the answers that your I AM self gives you. See your Christ self observing your prayers in the same way a parent would observe a child’s prayers. When you can stand aside and see your human-self through the eyes of your own higher consciousness, you will see that humanly you have nothing to fear. Greater love hath no man than that he can see his humanity through the eyes of his divinity.

So what do you think? 

One thing that piqued my interest was:

Ask yourself questions and then listen to the answers that your I AM self gives you.

It reminded me of an experience Frank Laubach talks about in Letters By A Modern Day Mystic.  He was walking up to the mountain....where he went every day to meditate and pray...and suddenly, God was talking to Frank...using his own mouth, his own voice.  Frank's lips were moving...but God was SPEAKING.  Not all of this quote resonated...but it is an interesting quote.  It gave me something to ponder.....

Listening To God - continued

While checking out some of the devotionals in the bookcase (for the other blog) in the One Year Book of Personal Prayer...a devotional I picked up years ago at a Goodwill store...one of the quotes for September 7th is by Oswald Chambers. 

Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is the most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. 

Funny how so many different resources...stuff from so many different sources (print, cyber, day to day living, movies, notes and quotes saved on my computer etc) seem to come together to make a point.  It always surprises me a little when it happens. 

Tomorrow...back to some of the ideas the Keating interview birthed within my brain...

Listening To God...

I don't know why I don't go to church more often.  Even though I oftentimes disagree with some of the stuff "preached and teached"...I almost always come away edified.  Yesterday the sermon was based on the following verses in John 7.

40On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

41Others said, “He is the Christ.”

Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

Gee...it occurs to me "the people" are still "divided because of Jesus."  So many different views about him...and I suspect we all, in varying degrees, miss the mark. 

But...I digress...since the main purpose for this post is to tell you about a video clip they showed in which members of the church talked about where they were from.  Somehow, even though it seemed to be a bit off topic, one of the little girl's Emily babysits for had a segment in which she told about the day she asked Jesus into her heart.  Following is a paraphrase of what she said...precious and priceless...from the mouths of babes. 

"The day I asked Jesus into my heart, I was with my cousin, Collin.  I looked at him and he had his eyes closed...but he wasn't sleeping! I asked him what he was doing and he said...."

Here comes the "out of the mouths of babes" part.

"and he said, I'm LISTENING TO GOD" 

Wow.  So many adults do not get that.  We think prayer is the means by which we tell God what we would like him to do.  And, I think, that is a part of prayer...pouring our heart out to him...dumping our requests at the throne of Grace...letting him help us sort it all out.  Perhaps that begins the process he uses to conform our will to his will.  But isn't a big part of prayer..perhaps the BIGGEST part of prayer...LISTENING to God?"

BE STILL and know that I am God. 

Collin already has that part figured out....

Interview With Thomas Keating

In yesterday's post, I mentioned an interview with Thomas Keating that I stumbled upon while researching (googling) the connection between Christianity and Buddhism...which led to articles about Merton and Keating and centering/contemplative prayer. Keating is considered one of the founders of contemplative prayer, which is similar in many ways to Zen mediation. The article begins with a bit of history about Keating and the origins of contemplative prayer:

As a student at Yale in the early 1940s, Keating, the scion of a wealthy but not particularly religious Park Avenue family, found his Roman Catholic worldview sufficiently challenged by a freshman philosophy class to seriously investigate the roots of his faith. While in the library reading Thomas Aquinas's Catena Aurea, a line-by-line exposition of the four Gospels by the great Church fathers, he experienced a profound conversion: He deeply grasped the fact that Christianity was a contemplative religion. He realized that the spiritual sense of the Scripture was much more important than the literal and that union with the Divine was not only possible but available to all. "That insight," says the 74-year-old Trappist monk, 'was the seed that has continued to grow all through my life. What I am doing now is trying to share that insight."

The article goes on to say that:

Keating defines centering prayer as a contemplative practice, "a very simple method in which one opens oneself to God and consents to His presence in us and to His actions with us." When Keating uses the word "contemplation," however, he is not referring to rumination or reflection. He is using the term in its classical sense: being with God. Thus, through centering prayer one moves beyond images, emotions, and thoughts. According to Keating, it is like "two friends sitting in silence, being in each other's presence."

Keating's little snippet about friends made me think of the chapters in Exodus that tell us about the relationship Moses shared with God.  In the excerpt that follows, the Lord "speaks" to Moses face to face.  Were there words, spoken words, exchanged or was there silent communication similar to what Keating talks about?  The word translated "spoke" is the Hebrew word "dabar."  According to the Strong's Concordance it can mean to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing.  Also, according to Strong's, it is translated 20 times in the KJV as "commune."  I like that word...commune.  It means to be in close or intimate communication.  It encompasses all kinds of expression...both verbal and nonverbal.  Following is what scripture has to say about what took place in The Tent of Meeting. 

Exodus 33:7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. 11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

Later in the chapter Moses asks God to "teach me your ways" and "show me your Glory."

God replies, "My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest." and "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence."

Wow....like two friends being in each other's presence.  And how else do we see his glory...but by abiding in his presence? By hoofing it to our very own Tent of Meeting (where ever that might be...and who says it has to be a specific geographic location.  Perhaps the Tent of Meeting is another name for the prayer closet Jesus talks about...the place we find within...where we commune with the Spirit within....with "the Christ in you...the hope of Glory"  And in that special place he causes all of his goodness to pass in front of us. 

In his book, Friendship With God, Neale Walsch says:

"You must be willing to suspend what you imagine you already know about God in order to know God as you never imagined"

And so many of us have a skewed image of God....clinging to what we imagine we already know about  God.  Too frightened and leery to seek his face...to sit in silence in his presence. 

Keating touches on this distorted image of God in this interview.  More on that tomorrow...... 

Modern Day Mystic....

Once again, I am going to write this on the fly. Not sure why other than the duties, chores and responsibilities of life seemed to get in the way yesterday and rather than spending hours "writing" as I planned....I spent hours running errands; picking up a prescription, messing around with a badly stained pool (all the more perplexing because we are not sure where the stain came from)....and just the chores that seem to multiply (like rabbits) during the day.

I did manage to do quite a bit of research last night on one of the other guys Boyd recommended.  I was up to page forty on the search results from google when I was just to sleepy to do anymore clicking.  I have often found the most delightful quotes, info, links when I persevere through page after page after page of results.  I love google....

But I digress....
The next author I checked out (per Boyd's recommendation) was Frank Laubach.  Very, very interesting guy.  He is known as the Apostle to the Illiterates.  He worked many years in order to end illiteracy in other countries.  He is well known for his Each One Teach One method. (and has a book with that title)  The tribes of the Belgian Congo called him Okombekombe, which means "mender of old baskets," because he taught adults to read and write. Much like mending an old leaky basket, he renewed old leaky minds by teaching them to read. 

But he was a mystic as well...a modern day mystic...and wrote several books about his pursuit of keeping his mind fixed on God throughout the day.  He claimed we could learn to think of two things at once (perhaps more) and that we needed to always have an awareness of Christ as we go about our daily business.  A quote from Mr Laubach:

We make Him our inseparable chum. We try to call Him to mind at least one second of each minute. We do not need to forget other things nor stop our work, but we invite Him to share everything we do or say or think. Hundreds of people have experimented until they
have found ways to let Him share every minute that they are awake. In fact, it is no harder to learn this new habit than to learn the touch system in typing, and in time one can win a high percentage of his minutes with as little effort as an expert needs to write a letter. While these two practices take all our time, yet they do not take it away from any good enterprise.

They take Christ into that enterprise and make more result full. They also keep a man’s religion steady. If
the temperature of a sick man rises and falls daily the doctor regards him as seriously ill. This is the case
with religion. Not spiritual chills and fevers, but an abiding faith which gently presses the will toward
Christ all day, is a sign of a healthy religion.

Now I know that sounds a bit hokey....but his short devotional (written in 1953) called the Game of Minutes offers practical solutions and suggestions about how to keep Christ in the forefront of our minds throughout the day.  Throughout our busy days...not just the ones where we kick back in the lounge chair gazing out at the pool, sipping a glass of ice tea (or a cold beer) 

I am going to write at least one more post about him.  I found some really good quotes as I googled last night.  Inspiring quotes from a guy whose life was full of more than airy fairy spiritual pursuits.  He (and Christ) made a real life difference in the world while he practiced what Paul directed us to do....pray without ceasing. 

More tomorrow....