Bringing Faith to Life
Posts tagged prayer
Love Inspired
0Infinite love, inhale… All that is in you, exhale… Don’t hold your breath.
You are what you’re doing right now
0You aren't what you have. You aren't even what you've done. You are what you're doing right now. Come with me. I am with you as you pray. I am with you in your prayers. I am praying as you're praying. I am paving the way as you pray. (...does God pray? Who does God pray to? What would God pray for? Surely, God doesn't ask things of him/her/themself.) Prayer is a posture Prayer is a listening Prayer is a companioning a compassionate caring. Prayer is walking Prayer is a talking or un-talking Prayer is a being, really, a with-being Prayer is a lifting, a holding, a carrying, a crying, a drying of tears. I am never angry with you when you pray. Whatever you pray. You are what you're doing right now.
Stay in the presence of God
0I love the way you worship, I told him.
Because I did.
I enjoyed the freedom he had
to raise his hands
shout his praise
demonstrate his love of God Almighty.
I get embarrassed, I told him.
Because I do.
I worry about what others might think
if they saw me with raised hands
speaking out
demonstrating my love.
I love the way you worship, I told him.
But … How?
How do you dismiss
what others might think
what others might say
how they might react to your free expression?
He said:
Stay in the presence of God.
When your mind wanders
Stay in the presence of God.
When your heart questions
Stay in the presence of God.
When your spirit darkens
Stay in the presence of God.
When your strength fails
Stay in the presence of God.
Stay.
Where you are.
Where God is.
Hovering over you
A covering over you
Protecting you
flames will not burn you
waters will not overwhelm you.
Stay and worship.
Cause to pause
0Walking from here to there causes me to pause…
and then to consider what else bids me tarry.
prayer & meditation
sunrise & sunset
starry skies & awe
children & wonder
worship
play
dis-health & disease
caring & loving
table meals & table fellowship
phone calls
letter writing
Christmas cards
births & deaths
weddings & funerals
birthdays
These in our holding.
Hold sacred space,
common ground,
between.
Here and now is.
show me…
tell me…
teach me…
I pray.
Listening Up
06 years
Movement is my learning language.
Stillness is my listening language.
If I don’t listen up,
my next move may teach me a hard lesson.
Lord, hear our prayer
1
You have given us a world of beauty, and we have spoilt it.
A world to feed us, and yet many go hungry.
A world of riches, and we are unwilling to share.
A world to care for, and we think only of ourselves.
Forgive us, gracious God,
for those times your heart is saddened by our selfishness.
For those times we have no thought of others,
no cares but ours.
Enable us to see this world anew, as a gift from you,
to be shared and nurtured.
Amen
Lead ME not into temptation
0The Lord taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” ~ Matthew 6:13. It’s the oddest of requests really. Why in the world would God ever lead us INTO temptation? Do we really need to request that God not?
Yet, I have been feeling a bit tempted lately. For me this generally begins with a thought. When the thought occurs, I know it is temptation. It is not nice or not helpful to think it, but it doesn’t seem all that bad, really. As long as I don’t act on the thought.
Well, temptation is a slippery slope, and like most slopes, if you stop yourself before it gets too steep, you have a better chance of not falling. So, I had this other thought. What if, whenever I felt tempted, I just spoke the words to myself: “Lord, lead me not into temptation…”?
Worth a try, right? Well, the instant I adopted the practice, I was astounded at the frequency with which I put this to use. It’s a bit embarrassing. In just a few hours, I was tempted:
- to complain about the kids blocking the aisle
- to chastise the smokers in the parking lot
- to judge the outfit
- to find fault with the other patron
- to lose my patience
- to take advantage
- to blame
- to run ahead of God
- to seek validation and admiration
- to gossip
- to compare
- to rush to be done and submit less than my best
- to be selfish
- to dismiss another by talking over them
- to dodge my responsibility
- to neglect
- to steal by plagiarizing
- to worry
Wow! Think of the evil I was delivered from! Ha. And I thought I was doing pretty well. (see validation/admiration above) Guess this is gonna be a greatest hit on my prayer list.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Who is at the door?
0We endanger ourselves
when we choose only what suits us
and toss what doesn’t serve us.
Lord,
help me be one who
welcomes the other way;
one who engages
the different approach.
Cause me to open my door
to accountability come /knocking/
just as I would to \confirmation\
come calling.
It is by both of these
that you show me my way
to You.
Amen
Turn my mourning into morning
0I am in mourning
for the world I thought I knew,
had such hopes for,
dreamed such dreams for…
My world, my oyster,
Not mine any longer.
Overrun
By hate, by hurt, by harm.
But Love,
Love doesn’t insist on its own way.
Love waits,
Waits patiently for an invitation.
An opening in the doorway
A crack, a crevice, a peep hole.
See this? all this is nothing.
What lasts are These.
Just as you loved them,
I love you.
Lord, turn my mourning into morning.
Bring the dawning of your new day.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ~ Matthew 5:4
Praying for Charlottesville
2
Charlottesville, Virginia,
l’il college town,
All the school year, full of UVA Wahoos,
going to football games, going to class,
going to pubs down at the Corner.
Just like everybody.
Come from Virginia and everywhere,
to Mr. Jefferson’s University,
to get a college degree and
to learn about life,
in the classroom and on the lawn,
from their professors and from each other.
The University in Virginia.
Charlottesville, Virginia,
Situated in the center, caught in the middle,
between north and south,
black and white,
slave and free.
Where combatants gather, 
tempers flare
and the shouting starts.
“It’s my right to say what I want,” they say.
Unfurling words.
Words of unkindness,
words of disrespect,
words of damnation.
Words that pelt, pummel, and break.
More than rocks through a glass window,
words leave shards, lying on the pavement.
The war of words has come to Virginia.
We the people of the middle.
To Charlottesville, family home of a
man of great words. History remembers him.
Founding father.
Declaration author.
University benefactor.
Slave owner.
History belongs to no one.
The future belongs to someone.
Not you. Not me.
We.
We,
the People,
of the Middle.
Bold enough to see
that freedom is extended, as well as taken.
It’s not mine, if it’s not also yours.
If what I say hurts you,
I must strike that, not you.
Praying for Charlottesville …
Tender town in the center;
where the words
I pray for you
incline your heart
to pray for me.
In Thee,
We.