Category Archives: Prayer

Daily Multigrain

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Daily Bread

Okay, yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Yesterday many of us went to church, confessed our sins, received the promise of forgiveness and went home.  Now what?  How are you going to allow God to work in your life today?

It does not have to be some big spiritual feat or sacrifice.   A simple prayer asking God to start your day with grace and gratitude.  For example, take one petition from the Lord’s Prayer, such as “Give us today our daily bread.”   Reflect on that as you eat your breakfast, drink your morning cup of tea, as you start your car or turn on your computer. All that we have, all that we use each day is a gift from our Creator. 

Martin Luther answered the question, “What does ‘daily bread’ mean?”  in the Small Catechism. 

Everything included in the necessity and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like.

Slow down and see the amazing grace all around us.  Our daily bread is truly multi-grain and nourishing.

 Where was God for you in the second day of Lent?

Papa in Heaven

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Brother David and Grandnephew Troy

I saw this picture of my brother with his first grandchild and proud PAPA jumped to mind.  It seemed to fit with last night’s confirmation class on the Lord’s Prayer.   The prayer’s introduction, Our Father in heaven, became special when I learned that Jesus used the word “abba” for father.  It was a term of endearment, more like “daddy” or “papa.”  “Father” seems a bit stiff.  

The power of the Abba prayer came home to me in a strange way when I was in college.  I was home for Christmas break and wanted to get a Christmas gift for the family.  I had recently been introduced to C. S. Lewis and thought that a box set of The Chronicles of Narnia would be a good gift, but I had no money.   I decided to pray about it and ask God to help.  As I entered the Christian bookstore, I was asking God to provide me the money so that I could buy the books.  I picked out the books, got in line for the cash register, waiting, hoping for some miracle.  How was God going to intervene?  A stranger noticing my need, cash on the floor?   But as I waited in line, nothing seemed to happen.  When I finally reached the register, I stepped out of line and put the books back.   I was deeply disappointed that God had not helped me.

The Christian bookstore was directly across from the offices were my dad worked for a local newspaper.   I walked across the street to see if he was there.   He was and he asked me how I was doing.  I am not sure now exactly how the conversation went, but somehow I asked for a few dollars and he gave me enough to buy the books.   Abba had provided after all, just not the way I expected.

The lesson I learned that day was that prayer is not magic, but a relationship.  There are Christians who have their prayers answered in miraculous, amazing ways.  I tend not to be one of them.  Instead, God uses the means around me to provide for my daily bread and to save me from the time of trial.  Papa in Heaven is at work through my brothers and sister who live here on earth.  And that also means that at times I may be God’s answer to someone else’s prayer.  And I thank God that I am one of His beloved children who can call him Papa.

How have you experienced Papa‘s answer to prayer?

Slow Lent Movement: Part Two

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Slow down for Lent

Yesterday I introduced Bishop Payne’s concept of a Slow Lent.   Here are five slow spiritual disciplines that complement traditional Lenten disciplines.

1. Traditional: repentance 
    Slow: speak less, listen more.

In our hurried culture, we often are so quick to speak, to get our words out, that we rarely take the time to listen to what others say, especially those that we disagree with.  We rush to judgment when we need to listen and possibly to change the direction of our thinking, planning, and acting.

2. Traditional: forgiveness
   Slow: let go of one “should.”    

Many of us carry various kinds of “ought’s or should’s” that overload our schedule. We need to “forgive” ourselves.   For example, as a new pastor, I feel I should be involved in different local community activities.  One piece of wisdom I received recently is that a new pastor should not be involved in local community activities during the first year so that he or she can fully enter into the life of the congregation.   So I have given up that “should” even before Lent starts.

3. Traditional: catechesis (teaching)
    Slow: re-learn one basic of the faith

Rather than focusing on the newest spiritual discipline, simply re-focus on some basic spiritual discipline.  This year at Resurrection Lutheran, we will be re-learning the Lord’s Prayer and its meaning for prayer and life.

4. Traditional: fasting
    Slow: choose one way to ‘unplug’

For some Christians, Lent means giving something up so that one can better focus on God.  The usual items are chocolate, desert, alcohol, or meat.   Bishop Payne suggested that perhaps we “unplug” from the internet or turn off our smartphones or television.  We might not be able to do it 24/7, but we might choose to turn it off every evening or every Saturday.  Of course, the purpose is to open our time and our lives in a fresh way to God.

5. Traditional: almsgiving
     Slow: simplify

Certainly we need to be as gracious as our God and give to people in need.   Lent is a great time to practice such giving.  Yet our culture is so focused on the accumulation of things, perhaps we can shift our attention from accumulating to letting go.  My uncle Jerry lived for several years during his retirement in an RV.  Whenever he considered buying something, he had to consider what he would give away to make space for the new.  It made him think twice before buying.

Which discipline might help you slow down this Lent?

Running and Prayer Update

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Running with son

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that I have been unable to run pain-free since last spring and that I started a new round of physical therapy at Focus Fitness. (see MAT to PAT http://wp.me/p1e1iu-6A ).  Their staff is helping me to address the muscle imbalances I have developed by a series of exercises that activate weak or inhibited muscles.  Every day I attempt to do these awkward exercises, concentrating to keep the right form and to activate the appropriate muscles.  It is a definite mind-body exercise and I feel very foolish as I do them. 

Of course, last week, I had to try a short run to see if these exercises were having any desirable effect.  I hopped on to a treadmill and started first with a brisk walking pace and then pushed the pace higher to a slow jog.   I quickly discovered that my left IT band and right hamstring continued to complain.   I backed off the pace and stepped off the treadmill, disappointment hanging from my shoulders.   I had hoped for some instant relief.  But instead of running, I am back to the awkward exercises every morning and evening.

I continue to think there is a spiritual lesson for me to learn.  How often do I treat prayer as an instant relief button, hoping that God will magically answer my wish?  How often do I trust the process of praying patiently for God’s will to be done as I keep my focus on Jesus?  How often am I disappointed when things do not turn as quickly as I envisioned?

Also I know that many people feel awkward when they try to begin a spiritual discipline of prayer or scripture reading.   They are unsure whether their prayers are having the desired effect in their life or if they understand what they are reading.  Just like I needed a therapist to help me identify and work the weak muscles, a small group or spiritual mentor can help us begin a new spiritual journey. 

Is your spiritual journey flourishing, struggling or maintaining?  Where do you discover Jesus?

Holy Spirit Business

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Holy Spirit comes to work

I am preparing for my first annual congregational meeting at Resurrection Lutheran which will be this Sunday.  Annual meetings among pastors often have the reputation either of being boring, business-as-usual constitutional necessities or of being highly emotional and conflicted debates on peripheral or personality issues.   As a pastor, I don’t want either extreme to happen, but I do pray that the Holy Spirit comes to work: to coax, push, pull and move the congregation towards God’s future.  Discussion regarding a congregation’s priorities can be passionate and yet loving, for we share a common mission to trust, live and serve God.

The book of Acts has a lengthy account of a large church meeting in Jerusalem.  Paul and Barnabas brought a major concern to the whole church for discussion and debate.   Their concern was whether new Gentile members to the church had to fully convert to Judaism before they could embrace Jesus.  Since most of the early members of the church were Jewish and since Jesus was a Jew, many believed that Jewish laws should be upheld.  Paul felt otherwise and a strong debate developed among the leadership of the church.  What rules and regulations, if any, were needed?  After a lengthy debate, the leadership wrote a letter to the many new Gentile believers,  “It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from fornication” (Acts 15:28-29).  What stands out is that they trusted the Holy Spirit to be part of the discussion.  This was a matter of faith, since the Holy Spirit did not fly into the meeting like a dove and deliver a telegram from heaven.  It was in the discussion itself that God’s Spirit worked.

I think every pastor hopes and prays that the Holy Spirit would be the key partner in any congregational meeting. The Holy Spirit is neither boring, nor highly emotional, but is trustworthy.   The Spirit calls us to trust God in all things.   That seems good to me!

How has the Spirit worked in guiding you and your life with other Christians?

Top Ten Children Prayers

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Child Praying

Yesterday I ran across an internet listing of children’s prayers which I have reduced to my top 10.  These prayers you can pray with exceeding joy!

10.  Dear God,
please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.
Amanda

9.  Dear God,
Thank you for the baby brother but what I asked for was a puppy. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.
Joyce

8.  Dear God,
how did you know you were God? Who told you?
Charlene

7.  Dear God,
do you draw the lines around the countries? If you don’t, who does?
Nathan

6.  Dear God,
I keep waiting for spring, but it never did come yet. What’s up?  Don’t forget.
Mark

5.  Dear God,
Is Pastor Keller a friend of yours, or do you just know him through the business?
Donny

4.  Dear God,
I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it.
Nancy

3.  Dear God,
I do not think anybody could be a better God than you. Well, I just want you to know that. I am not just saying that because you are already God.
Charles

2.  Dear God,
I am doing the best I can. Really !!!!
Frank

And, saving the best for last   .

1.  Dear God,
I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday night. That was really cool.
Thomas

I think #2 captures our tremendous need for confession and God’s promise of forgiveness while #1 describes the joy of praising God for the wonder and beauty of creation.   Sometime the simplest prayers are the best.  Romans 8:26 The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.

What prayers give you joy?

Prayer Helps

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Bishop N. T. Wright

I am preparing for a talk on prayer this evening and wonder if and when anyone uses the written prayers of others to guide their prayers.  I am convicted by N. T. Wright’s comments that, “we moderns are so anxious to do things our own way, so concerned that if we get help from anyone else our prayer won’t be ‘authentic’ and come from our own heart, that we are instantly suspicious about using anyone else’s prayers. . . . We are hamstrung by the long legacy of the Romantic movement, (which) produced the idea that things are authentic only if they come spontaneously, unbidden, from the depths of our hearts. ” (N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, p. 164-165)

I confess that I have at time been such an advocate of spontaneous prayers of the heart.   Yet I also know the value of written prayers that have guided Christian prayer for centuries.   Jesus, being a first-century Jew, learned memorized prayers such as the Shema (“Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one,” found in Deuteronomy 6:4)  and the Psalms.  He taught his own disciples his kingdom prayer, the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6 and Luke 11).  The prayer of St. Francis continues to “make us instruments of God’s peace.”   Martin Luther wrote short prayers for the morning and evening to be included in his Catechism.   AA groups use Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer to close their meetings.  Written prayers can give shape and structure to our devotional life.

One of my favorite written prayers I learned from the Lutheran Book of Worship, but it probably has a deeper history.   The prayer is part of the morning prayer service and I have used it at various time in my ministry, especially at the beginning of something new.

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

What written prayer(s) have shaped your faith life?  In what ways?

Holy Place of Peace

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Hiking below Mt. Rainier

This morning I lead a class on prayer and one of the prayer exercises was a guided meditation, based on Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”  One method that has helped me enter into silent meditation is to take an imaginary trip to a favorite place that emotes peace.  Many people (especially during a Minnesota winter) might choose a tropical beach with warm breezes and rhythmic surf.  Or a beautiful garden that is under a brilliant blue sky and filled with fragrant blooms.  I choose the Cowlitz Ridge near Mt. Rainier.

I hiked the ridge once, nearly forty years ago.  The week before I left for my freshman year of college, my friend Marv and I decided on one last hike together.  We picked a three-day trip along the Wonderland trail which circles Mt. Rainier.  At first we climbed the steep switchbacks up out of the dark forested river canyon.  As we near the top of the ridge we stepped out of the dark forest into brilliant sunshine and a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier.  We camped in that meadow for two nights, soaking up the beauty and wonder of that ridge.

Now whenever I want a special time of prayer, I go on an imaginary journey to that same spot.  The only difference is that I take the imaginary trip with Jesus as my guide and friend.  For many reason, I find rest, comfort, strength, hope in visualizing him there with me.  As I meditate a deep abiding peace grows up around me.  I realize that I could imagine Jesus with me in other locations, but that spot has become a very holy spot.

I sometimes wonder if I will ever make the hike back to Cowlitz Ridge.  I might, but it is not essential to my spiritual life.  The essential part remains Jesus who is my guide and source of peace and joy wherever I am.

 Has guided meditation helped you in your spiritual journey?  Where do you find God’s peace?

Ocean Hike

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Ruby Beach

As a teenager I backpacked two portions of the wilderness beaches along the Pacific Ocean.   The beaches were part of the Olympic National Park in Washington state and were the only trails open during the winter season (the high mountain passes were snow-covered).

I use the word “trail” loosely, because most of the route was the beach itself. Hikers simply kept the ocean on  their right or left, depending on whether they were going north or south.  Campsites could be found on the beach itself or inside the neighboring forest.  There were no roads or towns, just forest, ocean and beach.

However beach hiking had its tricky sections.   Steep, rocky headlands would jut out into the ocean.  Theses headland had little or no beach so a hiker had a choice.   Wait for low tide and race around the headland or find a trail that led up and over the headland to the open beach beyond.   I carried a tide table with me when I hiked, so I could know when the low tide would be and plan accordingly.   If I arrived at a headland too early or too late, I had to wait or try to find the bypass trail.  (Sort of like trying to find a portage trail in the BWCA.) 

I often think our spiritual walk with Jesus is like hiking on the beach. There can be long sections were the path is very clear and beautiful, yet wild at the same time.  We simply need to remember to keep the ocean (Jesus) on our left or right.  But then we come to some rocky headland, some struggle or challenge, that blocks the path.   We learn to either stop and look at the tide table, (a sort of prayer time) waiting for the tide to recede.  Or we take our chances in finding the wilderness trail (never easy) that leads up and over.    We may even loses sight of the ocean (Jesus), for a time.    Yet the sound of crashing waves and smell of salt air reminds us that Jesus is close by.

What images of walking with Jesus do you carry in your life?

Patience and beyond

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Pastor John when he could run

 I must confess that I have had trouble keeping up with my running buddies due to my own inactivity.  Over the past several months I have tried a few tentative runs, actually jogs, to see if my hip was better. Each time, the same pain came back and I would stop running and walk. I’ve stretched, I’ve iced, I’ve strengthen, I’ve Ibuprofen, I’ve massaged.  I have prayed.  I have had five appointments with a physical therapist to manipulate the SI joint.  Now I am scheduling an appointment with my doctor to see what options I have.  During this inactivity, several people have told me, “You must be patient.”

I have been hearing that patient word a lot.   As a new pastor in a congregation friends tell me tobe patient as I learn new names, faces, family connections and ministry choices.  At home I am learning to be patient with my siblings as we try to remodel and sell my mother’s home in Washington state.   I know that patience is a part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and it is good virtue to possess.  I just wish that I could be more patient in learning to be patient.   

In my journal, as I wrote about these frustrations, I came to the realization that in the grand scheme of things, a season or two without running is not the end of the world.  I have had other such experiences of inactivity from running injuries and eventually recovered.   In fact, this hiatus may just open me to some new activity of the Holy Spirit.  Like learning to walk in the Spirit of God.  Or cross-country skiing or snow showing or cycling or yoga.

And thanks for your patient listening and prayers for my recovery.

What has been an important lesson in patience for you?