Category: Spirituality

Topics pertain in some way to the unseen realm of Reality, the inner world, or the Divine, most often in a Christian and ecumenical context with the assumption that all people are in reality, beings with and of spirit.

Does Prayer Make a Difference?

Have you ever wondered what prayer is all about? Not just that it’s important, but why it is, or how it changes us? Why might God wish us to do it? Why did Jesus do it? I have.

In my Christian education class at church on Sunday, we’ve been going through the book by Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does it Make a Difference. I recommend it highly. It discusses the questions many of us have wrestled with regarding prayer. Such as, “If God knows everything, what is the purpose of asking him?” or “What is happening when it seems like God is silent, and my prayers seem to just be  hitting the ceiling?” or “What should I pray to God? What is off limits? Is it for him that I pray, for me, or both of us?” Yancey goes through plenty of tough prayer-related subjects honestly, without pat answers.

If you’ve read this book, what did you like, or what didn’t you like?

271053_1_ftc_dp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What have been the most helpful thing or things you’ve learned about prayer? What books have helped you? Please, leave a comment or lesson you’ve learned here.

Afraid of God

normal_FrightenedLady001 I was speaking with “Gwen” not that long ago, and she was telling me about an emotional subject. The words, “Oh my God” escaped her lips. She stopped. She looked around, and then with a look I would have to describe as panicked, she said, “I’m so sorry. I know God doesn’t like if I do that.”

I didn’t want to make anything of it, so I encouraged her to continue her story, but later I starting thinking about what happened. She was feeling afraid. It was fear she felt toward God when she apologized. 

 

Because God made us as relational beings, I wonder if we need to do better than being afraid of God. I know as a parent, I want to love my children and have them love me, not fear me. I want them them to respond to me and with me, not just respond out of fear of something happening to them. I enjoy my place as parent, rather than their peer. I do want honor and respect, and I try to offer that to them. But, if they operate in a way where they look over their shoulder every time they do something, I think I sense I have failed in some major way in relating to them, and parenting them. I will not have established a relationship of trust, and healthy love and caring.

I wonder if Gwen will feel close enough to God to feel unafraid one day. I wonder if she will feel he loves her dearly, and knows all about her, and still loves her just exactly the same. The fear comes from her own expectations, and probably what she has been told about God, but not God’s nature, and what God desires for her. He wants closeness, intimacy, and free reciprocal communication. He doesn’t want a cowering servant, always afraid to do or say the wrong thing that may displease him. Pagan gods were temperamental, but in contrast, Yahweh was and is not. I think the God image in her mind might look close to the dad she had, or some authority figure. But, the Lover of her soul, cares for her so deeply it would blow her mind.

Have you been afraid of God? Do you know someone who is? What has been the effect?

Perceiving Grace… Your thoughts?

Proposals on grace, including “kenotic decentering” here. After reading it…What are your thoughts about what you read?

Adam Miller‘s article brings up notions of what grace may be in how it may be perceived, or actually work in how we experience life.

Does grace fill in the gaps of our weakness, bringing us to find satisfaction and salvation in ways we never can alone. OR maybe is it what we allow, (and what is given) to help us find contentment and salvation in whatever the mixed bag of sorrow and joy happens in life. In other words, life is already normal, (not abnormal, despite the negative side of it) and grace helps us see life as not deficient. 

Miller points out a third way, and, of course, there are other ways to perceive grace, or propose how it works too. 

I’d LOVE to hear your proposal, or stab at it.

Art-the universal human language of connection

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo]

Art isn’t a segment that involves a certain branch of the population, it is a part of the human spirit itself. Through it, the connection, and language under, deeper than words expresses more than linguistics allows. Without forms of art we seem like mere brutes, animals, or machines, hardly able to get past our own shallowness or insufficiencies. And with it we struggle through the same, and grow into fuller humanness, which is the point.

Ukrainian sand artist, Kseniya Simonova depicts her people and their struggles following WWI and into the Nazi takeover in this awing artistic performance. She gets to the root of the human experience, and in my opinion, the place of greatest need where God always is.

Please, tell me what you think of this video.

Response to Reader (New Age)

Delta asks:

I brought up the subject of Lectio Divina to my friend, thinking that we could use it together. Once a week we meet as prayer partners, and I thought this practice could be a really neat way to begin our time together. When I mentioned it, she hesitated and said it sounded like “New Age” stuff to her, not Christian, and it wasn’t in the Bible. She seemed really reluctant to give it a chance. What should I say to her, or should I let it go?

Lisa’s response:

The name “Lectio Divina” might do some of the scaring for your friend, but really the “Our Daily Bread” devotional is set up quite similarly to the basic movements of L.D. read, meditate, pray, rest/listen (or dwell/abide/apply) If it was just called “Reading with focused prayer”, maybe no one would care. The tradition of L. D. goes back to very early church times when the first manuscripts of scripture were made available, and Christians could read them out loud and ponder them, pray on them to God, and rest in God.

The nice fit for Evangelicals, for instance, as the major focus is on the Scripture, which Evangelicals LOVE. It puts the Bible in prominence for prayer, worship, and hearing from God. Meditation is Christian (of Yahweh). Personally, as someone in the Christian tradition, I refuse to let other religious/or spiritual sects rob me of what God has given us to grow, and adore and worship him. I think we are cheated to section off practices, used by other groups for other purposes, when they are there to use for our own loving of God. He is the object of our praise. He is our glory. The Christian tradition is rich with meaningful spiritual practices that may be less than cut and dry, or formulaic, but it doesn’t mean God hasn’t and doesn’t use them powerfully to change us into his likeness. The unfamiliar here is only unfamiliar to some, in our current culture and time. 

To be clear, I don’t submit that L.D. and contemplative ways, are a WAY to God, only one of many tools, or vehicles, available to ready our hearts for His good work.

The Contemplative part (movement 4) may be the hardest to understand for your friend, (i.e. most unfamiliar) because it’s more common in the Catholic tradition. Again, some like to think, and reason all spiritual actions out, and figure out the formula of it all. If it’s just being, and resting, enjoying God and listening…how can it be “working”? Where’s the doing part? What good could it REALLY be? So, I like to explain it as resting, and yielding to God. We learn our place. He is God, we are not. We are dependent on Him. We don’t have to *do*. That is the whole point. When we complete this discipline this way, the reorientation can be quite beneficial.

Should you bring it up again? Probably not if it’s a big stumbling block for her. I suggest you enjoy God privately with this enriching practice, and if you would really like to engage L. D. with another, send them here to learn about it, (do a search here for more on the topic) or explain it in terms that they might be more comfortable with, such as “Scripture Reading and Focused Prayer.” May God Bless you as you strive to walk closer to him.