Me- Me- Me Mine-Mine-Mine

Image by irBri via Flickr

My two-year-old granddaughter’s frequent line is “Mine. Kyla do it.”

I smile and accept this is the language of an immature, but growing toddler who has a long way to go yet in life.

Yet her tone of voice and words sound vaguely familiar. Then I recognize it.

“Mine. I will do it. Me-me-me” echoes my prayers.

My prayers lately have been very me-centered. Though I have pitch up prayers for others like icing on the cake, deep down my words are pretty much – me-me-me and mine- mine-mine.

I wonder what all of our collective prayers to God sounds like to Him. Reminded of this scene from Finding Nemo and the seagulls:

Our prayers may start out sounding beautiful and even musically, but the chorus of me-me-me is never far away. I love the Muppets and this video illustrates my point:

Remember the scene in Bruce Almighty when Bruce is overwhelmed with hearing all the prayers.

God smiles and accepts each of our efforts in talking with Him. I know He lovingly understands our human limitations, fears, and ego driven desires.

I truly believe He willingly listens for hours to my whining, complaining, and badgering Him on why and when.

Just like I understand the developmental level of my toddler granddaughter – He knows my heart too.

Beaker’s singing and the seagulls’ screeching reverberate in my ears and my spirit today, so once again I approach the throne of God - this time with different prayers.

Today my prayer will be sprinkled with praise and thankfulness.

For once I may say nothing at all.

Just being with God is enough. And that is enough for me.

ABBA - Lectio Divina

 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him “Abba, Father.” Romans 8: 15

Image by absolut xman via Flickr

“Abba, Father.”

Abba

Abba

Abba

Thank you Lord for gathering me so near to Your heart.

Abba

I rest in Your strong, yet tender arms and drink in Your love into my parched soul.

Abba

I snuggle onto Your lap with a clarity that I know You and You know me.

Abba

For a brief precious moment in Your sacred embrace, I know throughout my whole self that I am a cherished child of God and all I whisper is,

Abba.

No fear

No anxiety

No urge to be elsewhere except with my Abba.

Abba

Abba

A Prayer from St Augustine – Quote of the Week

Image via Wikipedia

I beg of You, my God,

let me know You and love You so that I may be happy in You.

And though I cannot do this fully in this life, yet let me improve from day to day till I may do so to the full.

Let me know You more and more in this life, that I may know You perfectly in heaven.

Let me know You more and more here, so that I may love you perfectly there,

so that my joy may be great in itself here, and complete in heaven with You.

O Truthful God, let me receive the happiness of heaven, which You promise so that my joy may be full.

In the meantime,

let my mind think of it,

let my tongue talk of it,

let my heart long for it,

let my mouth speak of it,

let my soul hunger after it,

let my flesh thirst after it,

let my whole being desire it,

until such time as I may enter through death into the joy of my Lord,


there to continue forever, world without end.

Amen.

St. Augustine

St. Augustine

Image via Wikipedia

The commemoration of St. Augustine will be celebrated in many churches this coming Sunday. How much to you know about this man from the early church?

St. Augustine is considered by many scholars to be the most important figure in the ancient Western church. St. Augustine was a very busy 5th century Catholic bishop of a prosperous town in North Africa, called Hippo, in what is today Algeria. He was born in North Africa. His mother was a Christian, but his father remained a pagan until late in life.

After a rather unremarkable childhood, Augustine drifted through several philosophical systems before converting to Christianity at the age of thirty-one. During this time, Augustine fathered a child by a mistress. This period of exploration, including its youthful excesses are recorded in Augustine's most widely read work, the Confessions.

Returning to his homeland soon after his conversion, he was ordained in 391, taking the position as bishop of Hippo in 396, a position, which he held until his death.

Augustine was a man of great intelligence, a fierce defender of the orthodox faith, and a prolific writer. In addition to the book Confessions, Augustine's book City of God had a great impact upon the church throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  He used his writing to develop early Christian doctrine.

St. Augustine wrote many words of wisdom we still find in literature today. Here are only a few:

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”

“You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.”

“Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”

“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”

And perhaps the most quoted one:

“Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”

I like his prayer, which is a great way to end today’s post:

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.”

Do you have a favorite St. Augustine quote or which of the one above resonate the most with you?

Spiritual Breathing

Image via Wikipedia

Take deep breath.

Pause a minute and breath in deeply.

Feel your chest rise and expand with each inhale and relax as you exhale.

Taking deep breaths is healthy for us in so many ways – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4

In the Bible breath is a powerful symbol of the presence of God. The air we breath every moment of our life is invisible, but life giving. The breathes we take, most of time without our control or even our awareness keeps us alive.

The air surrounding us is a massive ocean—invisible, yet completely necessary for our life, for we are quickly dead without it. Makes me wonder if one reason God created the air—and how his living creation breaths - was to show us how great and immediate and pertpetual is our need for Him.

“Take a breather,” advised the coach after a hard workout.

“Take a deep breath,” says the doctor.

“Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?” writes poet Mary Oliver.

As a nurse, I love learning about fascinating details God created in the human body. And something as simple as breathing holds many lessons for us.

I heard a doctor say on television the other day that the surface size of the two human lungs is equivalent to the size of a tennis court.

If all of the capillaries that surround the air sacs, the alveoli, were unwound and laid end to end, they would extend for about 620 miles.

It only takes about 1½ seconds for your heart to spread blood over a lung area and then shoot it back into circulation. This happens about 100,000 times every day, usually totally automatically.

I have taken care of the asthmatic in the ER who couldn’t inhale the oxygen he needed or the one suffering from emphysema who leans forward, heaving through pursed lips struggling with every exhale.

We take it for granted – our breathing. We breathe in and out every day, every night, most of the time without ever thinking about it.

Yet we die when we can’t breath.

Take this moment to appreciate what God gave us in our ability to breath. Take a deep breath. Inhale slowly. Exhale longer. This is life.

Let’s be grateful for breathing and for the Breath of Life.

“Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.” – Swedish Proverb

Take a moment today for breathing and enjoy the presence of God.

Spiritual Questions – Lectio Divina

When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets."

He pressed them, "And how about you? Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 16:13-16 (The Message)

Image via Wikipedia

"What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?"

"And how about you? Who do you say I am?"

Questions.

Lord, I think You love questions.

You have sprinkled Your Bible with them.

You love to ask them to us, making us feel uneasy enough to stretch out of our comfort zones, yet secure enough to try to discuss them with You.

God - the Master Teacher, the One who already knows the answer – still asks us questions.

You invite us to pull up a chair and to say, “Let’s talk about this? What do you think?”

I am thankful You are God who asks questions.

I am also thankful You are a God that allows us to ask questions.

You give us a sacred space to wrestle with uncertainty, to examine our doubts, and to search for meaning all the while surrounded by Your loving arms.

To come to You, frustrated, angry, fearful and ask You, “Why?”

To draw near to You with more tears than words and whisper, “How?

To sit with You, tapping our feet and wiggling off Your lap, demanding, “When?”

And You still welcome our questions.

Questions from mere human beings to the Supreme Being.

Questions from the Master Teacher to His earthly students to broaden our minds and deepen our faith.

Questions that invite us to draw closer and linger a little longer and perhaps get to know each other better.

Today I am grateful for questions

      Those asked of me

            And those I can ask

Today I am thankful for an inquiring and inquisitive God who is so crazy about us to ask questions and to invite us to dialogue with Him.

How Close is God? Karl Rahner Quote of the Week

Can it really be possible 

We are so tightly bonded

that our breath is one breath?

Can it be You are intertwined

In every thought of mine

                             That steps into consciousness?

Can it be that Your great love

Forever mingles with my own?

If so, I gladly lose myself

In the closeness of Your presence.

Karl Rahner

Are You Ready?

Image by UW Digital Collections via Flickr

I have been watching the live video streams this week from the ELCA Churchwide Assembly taking place in Orlando Florida. While listening to debates over policy makes my eyes glass over, the committee reports brim over with inspirational passion. Story after story is shared of making difference in lives of people suffering from malaria in Africa to tornadoes in Missouri. Powerful stuff.

Each day a communion worship service takes place. I have stopped all my activities and worshipped in my office, virtually transported to Florida. 

Bishop Mark Hanson’s sermon the first day still lingers with me. He read from Luke’s gospel the story of Mary being told she will carry God’s child. Hanson asked the question:

Like Mary, are we ready to be moved by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Am I ready?  

Am I ready for God to interrupt my routine and expectations?

Am I prepared to let go of my feeble attempts to control my future and really trust in His care?

Am I ready?

I recall two incidences this year where I did trust God and did what I felt He was calling me to do. Both times I didn’t feel ready at the time and it was only after prayer and trusting Him, did I know the next step I should take. I did not feel ready.

Am I ready?

When I first step out into the unknown, only clinging to faith and trust and God’s promises, no I am NOT ready!

To me being ready means I know where I am going. I am fully equipped with what I need. My heart is completely committed to finishing the task. All arrangements are on file and organized in multicolored alphabetical files.

Instead I feel unworthy, vulnerable and lost. I am ready ONLY through the power of the Holy Spirit. I draw on the Lord’s courage and strength to proceed.

When will I ever feel ready?

I am ready when God is ready to let me know I am ready. And usually that is not in beginning.

Maybe the sense of readiness comes after the first step or first month or first year when I faintly finally find His fingerprints. We may never be completely prepared for much of what we face in life.

Am I ready?

No Bishop Hanson I am not.

But I think I will stay with this question for a while and listen to its uncertainty and inquisitiveness.


I will learn more from the question than the answer.

A Spiritual Discipline – Teach Me to Listen, Lord

Image via Wikipedia

The day I spotted the tiger swallowtail butterfly dancing on my flowers continues to linger in my soul.

My immediate reaction was “to do.” I grabbed my camera and joined him in the garden, snapping away to capture that moment.

Yet to take the closest photographs, I had to stop and stand very, very still. At one point I even thought my new friend might land on my arm, thinking I was part of the garden. I lean so near to him, for a moment I almost heard the flutter of his wings.

Experts say butterflies cannot hear, but they can feel vibrations.

We can hear, but do we listen?

Listening – what a spiritual discipline we all need to develop. I know at least I do.

Teach me to listen, Lord.

Listening, whether to God, to others, or to our true selves, mean stopping and standing so still you can “hear” the vibrations.

“For listening is the act of entering the skin of the other and wearing it for a time as if it were our own. Listening is the gateway to understanding. “
 David Spangler in Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent

Listening to God and really hearing others is getting so close we feel the vibrations of their hearts.

Stop. Stand Still. Listen.

Like any spiritual discipline, listening takes intentional practice. I can’t just pull a switch and become a better listener. Stopping what I am doing and find even a few minutes of silence each day nourishes my listening. Savoring sights and sounds God presents us with every moment also helps me learn.

Teach me to listen, dear Jesus.

I keep these two chairs in my office and often look at them when I pray. They symbolize Jesus in one chair, listening to me, even when I don’t have any words. Their emptiness also reminds me to come with an unoccupied open heart to receive whatever God is sending me, to really hear Him. The chairs represent the sacred space between two people as they listen to one another.

Listening involves begin empty for the other person – letting go of what you want to say or a need to be right or your urge to fix the problem – and just give them the gift of being present.

Mother Teresa’s quote (see two posts down from this post) continues to strike me that listening nourishes our relationship with God.

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit.

Paying attention implies an effort, a cost on my side. I let go of my wants, my self-talk, my doubts, and fears. Drawing that close - to really feel another person’s vibrations - makes me feel vulnerable. Standing that still lowers my defenses. Becoming one with another or Another, part of myself fades away. Listening joins our souls together and I emerge a different person.

 I am not sure where God is leading me as I listen, but I know He invites all of us to practice and grow in this discipline.

Found this prayer the other day by John Veltri, S.J., a Canadian spiritual director and expert guide for those presenting the Spiritual Exercises:

Teach me to listen, O God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends, my co-workers.

Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is, “Accept the person I am. Listen to me.”

Teach me to listen, my caring God, to those far from me– the

whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.

Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid to trust the voice inside — in the deepest part of me.

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice — in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and doubt, in noise and in silence.

Teach me, Lord, to listen.  Amen.

What helps you to practice listening?

A Growing Faith – Lectio Divina

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. Romans 4:20

His faith grew stronger

Lord I always think some of Your spiritual giants – Abraham, Moses, David – were born with a deep faith.

Lord, sometimes when I read their stories I think they had it easier because of they knew instinctively how to trust in You.

You just gave them more and that is why I struggle with less.

Yet in today’s reading, Abraham first believed in Your promise, then his faith grew.

I spend too much time longing for the end results and missed the main ingredient.

Like making bread without leaven, in my faith I forget Your promise.

Lord, I accept Your promises as true.

May Your sacred assurances ferment within my soul nurturing my faith.

And the last words of this verse: “and in this he brought glory to God.”

Remind me once again, Lord, it isn’t about me. Your gift of faith isn’t for me to feel better, to think I am now holy, or to be some grand accomplishment due to my efforts.

No, my life is only for Your glory. The sole and soul purpose of any drop of faith I gain by clinging to Your promises is to give it back to You.

My hands rest open in Your hands. I am Yours.

    

Praying – Mother Teresa – Quote of the Week

Image by Peta-de-Aztlan via Flickr

Dan Rather, CBS television interviewer, asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "When you pray, what do you say to God?"

Teresa: "I don't say anything, I listen."

Rather: "Well okay … when God speaks to you, then, what does he say?"

Teresa: "He doesn't say anything. He listens. ... And if you don't understand that, I can't explain it to you.”

WITH – Book Review

How do you relate to God?

Is He the Great commander giving us laws to live by or one we feel we are obligated to serve? Is He the Almighty Genie in the sky? 

I know in my heart what I am supposed to believe about God, but find myself many times operating with an entirely different set of images that affect my relationship with the Lord.

With – Reimaging the Way you Relate to God is a new book by Skye Jethani. The tag line intrigued me:  “Stop living your life under, over, from, and for God and start living in communion with Him.”

Jethani describes five postures that Christians often take toward God because of the way they view Him. He writes a chapter on the four most common ways: under, over, from, and for.

“Life under God sees the world as governed by the capricious will of God. Life over God places immutable natural laws at the center. Life from God assumes the world orbits around the self and its desires. And life for God sees a divine mission a the core of all things.”

The second half of the book expands on living WITH God, which builds on our relationship with God as the foundation. Whereas the other approaches use God in some manner, life WITH God, the goal, our deepest desire is God.

A weakness in the book is when Jethani expands living WITH God section, it is more theoretical than useful. He adds on an appendix at the end on how to implement this concept more as an afterthought. Most readers I would think would like more of the practical applications earlier in the book.

I would recommend this easy to read book that is full of stories and quotes as a great way to spark conversations within a small group about relating to God. In the back of the book there are discussion questions that would benefit a small group.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

On a whole WITH is a thought provoking book that will help others take a look on what they really believe about God and how the relate to Him.

Thanking God for Weeds

I was driving last week down one of our back county roads. 

Tall tasseled green corn stood in formation on each side of the highway.

Lining both sides of the road as far as I could see grew countless blue dayflowers.

                          Delicate Queen Anne’s Lace danced in the breeze.

Even the clover blossomed in pick colors.

“Thank you” tumbled out of my mouth.

The beauty of God’s world captured my voice and all I could say was “Thank you.”

“Thank you, Lord God, for crafting these dazzling details in Your creation.”

If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is "thank you," that would suffice. —Meister Eckhart

*****************************************************************************

 I realized later that except for the corn, the beauty I experienced that day arrived in the form of unwanted weeds. In fact the blue dayflowers are classified as noxious and hard to control.

Made me wonder:

   What do I cling to that would be categorized as toxic?

     Are there other unwelcomed “weeds” that I think are useless, unnecessary and only a nuisance that I should be thankful for?

    What splendor have I cast off that if I looked once again I would see its beauty?

God’s nature overflows with lessons, doesn’t it? Even with the weeds, He is teaching us.

Now I know all the Bible verses about weeds and the gardening words of wisdom about controlling them, but this week I also saw beauty in weeds. 

Found some interesting quotes about weeds that made me appreciate weeds a little more:

A weed is but an unloved flower.  ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Weeds are nature's graffiti.  ~Janice Maeditere

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.  ~A.A. Milne

What is a weed?  A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I will end with this blessing for you:

May all your weeds be wildflowers.  ~Author Unknown

P.S. Just realized today's post is my 400th on this blog.  Thanks for reading!!

God’s Immediacy – Lectio Divina

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

    Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

  But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

  “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

   “Come,” he said.

    Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

    Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

   And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”  Matthew 14: 22-33

Image by More Good Foundation via Flickr

Immediately…Immediately…Immediately

Lord, You know this is one of my favorite stories.

The image of You walking on top of the water amid the waves.

Peter’s crazy enthusiasm to join you on the water.

What did the other disciples think?

I wonder if I would have been brave enough to ask You like Peter or would I have stayed, hidden in the boat.

But this morning a different word resonated within me.

Immediately.

That word is used three times in these short verses.

Immediately Jesus sent the disciples into the boat

Immediately Jesus told them not to be afraid.

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and saved Peter.

Immediately

Immediately, Lord, You send us right now into the world. Not in some future date when we have our act together. You send us now, imperfect as we are.

Immediately Lord, You tell us not to be afraid. At this present moment You command us to let go of our fears and grasp Your hand of strength.

Immediately You are by our side, reaching out to save us. At once You grab us before we drown and without delay take hold of us. Even when the waves continue to crash around us, You immediately take our hand to save us.

Immediately You bridge all time and space with Your sacred net to catch our souls.

Immediately

What an awesome God!

POVERTY – Quote of the Week – Mother Teresa

Image by Teo's photo via Flickr

"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."

Mother Teresa

Healthy Spiritual Nourishment - Five Bible Verses to Ponder

                            Image via Wikipedia

Ponder  - what a delightful word!

To ponder usually means to think about something.

But it has more depth than that.

To ponder can mean to consider quietly, somberly and deeply; to examine attentively or deliberately or even to wrestle with.

One definition referred   “to weigh in your mind.” The word actually comes form Latin meaning to weigh. I like that image. Take a Bible verse, for instance, and gently put in on the scales within your head balancing it with your life experiences, your beliefs, your hopes and dreams and let it slowly seep into your heart.

My favorite definition is to “chew on.” Or as Rainer Maria Rilke wrote writing that requires the reader who “does not always remain bent over his pages; he often leans back and closes his eyes over a line he has been reading again, and its meaning spread through his blood.”

Eugene Peterson wrote a book about the art of spiritual reading call “Eat This Book.” His definition is “reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spread through our blood and becomes holiness and love and wisdom.”

“Reading is an immense gift, but only if the words are assimilated, taken into the soul - eaten, chewed, gnawed, received in unhurried delight. Words of men and women long dead, or separated by miles and/or years, come off the page and enter our lives freshly and precisely, conveying truth and beauty and goodness, words that God’s Spirit has used and uses to breath life into our souls.”

Now that is powerful pondering!

For Christians to stay healthy spiritually, we need to chew on, deeply ponder God’s word.

“To know much and taste nothing – of what use is that?” Bonaventure

Here are five Bible verses I am “weighing and eating” this year.  I have them posted by my computer and read them everyday. I journal about them, pray over them, and ask God to help me peel off their layers to find the nugget of truth He wants me to learn from each of them.

1.     “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Psalm 27:8b

2.     
“Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your Truth;
 give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.”  Psalm 86:11

3.     “Quiet me with Your love.”  Zephaniah 3:17

4.     “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. Ephesians 3:17-19 (New Living Translation)

5.    "I have set the LORD continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Psalm 16:8 (New American Standard Bible)

What Bible verses are on your heart this year?