Prayer: Make the call

Prayer is a nonlocative, nongeographic space that one enters at one's own peril, for it houses God during those few moments of one's presence there, and what is there will most surely change everything that comes into it. Prayer, its opal walls polished to transparency by the centuries of hands that have touched them, is the Tabernacle realized and the wayside chapel utilized. Ever traveling as we travel, moving as we move, prayer grips like home, until the heart belongs nowhere else and the body can scarcely function apart from them both. Prayer is dangerous and the entrance way to wholeness.

Phillis Tickle

The life of prayer is a land of great adventure and discover, only it's not necessary for you to pack a suitcase or acquire a passport. However, cultivation of a prayerful life is something that many folks find daunting. I have often felt frustrated by the challenge of consistent prayer, for it calls for pause and pausing can be challenging.

In the last few months, I've been experimenting with a few different prayer practices to see what may help me take steps to unfamiliar lands begin with pause and reflection. (Praying the hours, lectio divina (my mainstay for the last 6 years , book of common prayer and praying in color.) While reading Margaret Feinberg's Sacred Echo, I was encouraged to reconsider and be reminded that prayer is a conversation with God. I often teach youth that group prayer is simply like making a phone call. Someone in the group is the dialer, some are he talkers and listeners and another the good-bye and hang up person. If I can transfer the phone call analogy to my solitary prayers, that may be of help as well.

Sometimes I think it's necessary for me to shield even God from the things that are hard and challenging, but in the action of prayer I'm reminded that God can take it. God can handle it. God does not get weary from listening to me. By sharing my life in calling out in prayer, I can come to a place of focus and center that only God can cultivate.

Prayer is a spiritual practice that can travel with you in all spaces, situations and times of life. A while ago I heard the quote, "Pray as you can, not as you can't", and it reminded me that I shouldn't think my prayer life needs to be perfect before I share it with God. That really would be missing the point. Prayer is the act of sharing life with God, and God knows my life isn't perfect. God desires to be in the mix of it with us. God desires to have us call out to him in all circumstances, not just the happy and joyful; but all times of our lives.

So in this adventure of prayer, it's important to find some tools that are helpful, but most important to remember that God really wants to hear from you. It's like making a phone call. There's talking and listening and sharing life - the concerns and the joys. So don't hesitate to dial a prayer, wherever you are, a passport or long-distance plan isn't needed. Just you, and God, where you are. Let's pray.

"I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills [his purpose] for me." Psalm 57:2

Sunny and rainy day friends

There are two kinds of friends in the world: Sunny day friends and rainy day friends. This is a statement that my Mom used to remind me of when I was in the midst of drama or conflict with one school friend of another. There are lots of people that we define as friends, but they are really acquaintances. Two men were out hunting in the northern U.S. Suddenly one yelled and the other looked up to see a grizzly charging them. The first started to frantically put on his tennis shoes and his friend anxiously asked, "What are you doing? Don't you know you can't outrun a grizzly bear?" "I don't have to outrun a grizzly. I just have to outrun you!" This story is funny, but it does help define the distinct difference between a rainy day friend and a sunny day friend. The sunny-day-friend is more concerned with watching out for their own health and wellness, than their friends' wellbeing. On the other hand, a rainy day friend is willing to take risks, work fo

FCE - Dog stroke in spine

Kahlúa is our 15 year old dog that we adopted from the Humane Society when she was four. She joined our family and has been with us for eleven years so far. This morning we found her laying on the carpet in the dining room and was unable to get up and go outside. After letting her rest for a few hours, I gave her some bread to eat and she got up. She was wobbly so I scooped her up and took her outside to go to the bathroom. She managed to remain standing for a few minutes, but was back down quickly. Her back legs did not want to support her even though she was trying to walk. By this point, she had begin to cry so I called the vet and they said to bring her in for an evaluation. My kids and I tearfully wrapped her up in a blanket and drove to the vet. It seemed as if we were sitting in the waiting room forever. The vet told me that her heart, eye function, and lungs were great - also taking into consideration her age of 15! The problem seemed to be FCE - firocartilanginous embolism: w

Gifts we have to give

So often people will think of the areas of life that they fall short or what may need some improvement. I think there is some wisdom in knowing where we need some work as humans, but I also feel it is equally important to learn, foster and use the gifts each one of us are instilled with. So here is the challenge or question that I'd like to present: "What gift(s) has God given to you that can be used in the care and ministry of loving others?" How have you seen that gift used in the past? How would you like to use it? If you dream big and I dream big together - how could God work in that big pool of gifts in the lives of others??? Let's share our gifts today and dream of what they can accomplish for God's purpose! 1 Peter 4:8-10 (New International Version) 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,

Uphill idealist

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