Celebration of Discipline: Prayer (for the right-brainer)

Confession time:  When I hear people say they experience "the power of prayer," I'm envious.  Most of the time, I feel like I'm talking to myself.  I try to devote part of my morning quiet time to prayer, but I rarely seem to get past, "Lord, thank you for this day."  Then my mind wanders to some lines from hymns or psalms, and then I'm officially distracted by "what should I do next?"  

Meditation and contemplation come more easily.  Praying with a friend or small group comes more easily, as does shooting up brief arrows of prayer in moments of need.  Is there something I am missing in personal prayer?  I suspect it is the discipline of it, like exercising a muscle that only becomes stronger with use.  

Richard Foster, in his chapter on the discipline of prayer, gives me two very useful tools for personal prayer.  First, he suggests engaging the imagination by asking God for pictures during prayer.  I'm guessing that Foster is a right-brainer, like me, opposed to prayer check lists and daily guides, and more inspired by art and metaphor.

I tried it out this week, and as I prayed for my son, God gave me a picture of a shield around this beloved young man.  I smiled, thinking of Noah's recent performance in Camelot as King Arthur, bearing a sword and shield.  This picture was further confirmed by my subsequent reading of Psalm 5 that morning, which ends with "For you bless the godly, O LORD, surrounding them with your shield of love."  Big smile!

This was a glimpse into the power of prayer.  A picture.  A scripture to confirm it.  A rush of gratitude in response.  The prayer muscle strengthened.  

The second tool is to pray expectantly.  I so often pray half-heartedly, using sacred powerful words like bless, help, protect, and guide in a routine way, as if I'm reciting from some bank of acceptable prayer words.  But if I slow down and picture an actual hand of blessing on a person, a literal grip of help, a strong shield of protection, and a guiding light upon a dark path, now there is something different.  If I become specific in my desires and as bold as the psalmists, now there is power.  If I devote myself to listening and watching for clues that God is working and answering the cries of my heart, now there is the key to unlock the mystery of the power of prayer.

Celebration of Discipline Part 1: My First Lesson

Discipline:  Meditation

"The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between.  In this way, we do not need to go to God ourselves."  

-Richard Foster

And I wonder, do I run to a go-between?  Ah, yes.  Books.  Blogs.  How much comfort and intrigue I find in reading other people's thoughts on spiritual matters.  Too much time with my head in their words, however, does not leave me much time to practice the Christian disciplines and make them my own.  

As I read Richard Foster's guiding words on the first inward discipline of meditation, I realize I need to close my books, switch off the computer, open the curtains to reveal a windowful of created inspiration, quiet my heart, center my prayer, and breathe. 

Unlike eastern meditation, in which the goal is detachment from the material world, Christian meditation is meant to form an attachment to God, to linger in the quiet space long enough to make that mental pilgrimage to the throne room.  

Pick a space.  Make it pretty and comfortable.  Tell the kids about it so they are thoughtful and gentle with their inevitable interruptions.  Better yet, rise before they awake.  Here is mine...

Employ the imagination.  Jesus made constant appeals to our imagination when he taught through image-driven parables.  One morning I pictured a shield around my son, who is often in my prayers as he navigates new territory.  I drew the image in my journal and found corresponding psalms to pray for him.  Oh, the fruit of meditation.

I am drawn to the art of lectio divina, or sacred reading, to guide my meditation.  Slow, deliberate, searching, reflective, responsive.  Some people are motivated by reading through their Bibles in a year, but I've found this disheartening and empty.  Others love inductive study, looking up word roots and cross-references.  I would rather approach my time in the Word like Bonhoeffer, completely enveloped in one verse for a week, over skimming four chapters a day or flipping around in my Bible.  But this is just a personal preference at this point in my life.  

Otium sanctum means holy leisure, and I've found that it can be employed in a busy life by first setting aside time to meditate and by cultivating an attitude of prayer throughout the day.

"There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once.  On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs.  But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings."

-Thomas Kelly

Time for me to close the books, turn off the laptop, and practice.  

Discipline. A Celebration? Really?

As I grabbed books from boxes and speed sorted them like a librarian onto the rummage sale table, I paused when my hand held the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.  I was working at a fundraising rummage sale sorting hundreds of donated books last Friday, chuckling at prizes like Wisdom for the 1987 Graduate, which was in a box with a half-opened package of male Depends (which promptly sold, by the way!) and not seeing much to capture my attention... until this moment.  

Richard Foster, the modern Quaker theologian contemplative, is a voice in the desert for me.  I've read his words just about every morning for months as I've worked my way through Classic Devotions and Spiritual Classics, books in which he has selected and commented on numerous classic writings.  Do you know when a voice is like a cold drink of water on a sweltering day?  That's how his voice is to me.  I drink it up as he introduces me to the writings of the classic saints and mystics and deep spiritual thinkers.  Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder what I just read from some 12th century monk, and then Foster sweeps in to illuminate the timeless heart of the message, and I say, "ohhhhhhh, I get it."

I've been wanting to read Celebration of Discipline for a long time, but frankly, the title scares me.  I am SO not disciplined.  I am creative, spontaneous, artistic (words I like) along with being a weak finisher of my grand ideas, a leaper from this to that, and an expert of nothing (words I dislike.)  But here was the book in my hand for a mere $1, and I thought...it's now or never.

So I'm going to take you along on this journey and interpret what I read through the lens of a 21st century wife, mother, homeschooler, songwriter, comfort lover, sinner, quitter.  Here is your "I might quit half way through" warning.  If that's the case, I will make it through the #6 discipline of solitude and then just quietly disappear by some lake in Northern Minnesota, and you'll understand.  You can go get your own book at that point.

Will this really be a celebration?  Time will tell.

Spirituality and Service: Inseparable Twins

My friends and I often refer to Marys and Marthas.  In the well-known story from Luke 10, the sisters choose differently in responding to a visit from Jesus.  Mary sits with him and soaks in his presence.  Martha tends to everyone's physical needs.  

We sometimes debate who was right, which is silly, because both are right, both are needed, both are a sign of maturity.  Spirituality and service are inseparable twins that need to rest at the heart of each of us.  My best days are spent being Mary in the early morning hours and Martha the rest of the day.  If I sit in quietness and pray God will show me how to meet people's needs the rest of the day, I must be careful not to begrudge the opportunities to serve.  

And each thing is an opportunity:  to quiet the children's quarreling, to be the teacher and cab driver, the encourager of friends, the helping hands for those in physical need, the open purse for those in financial need.  The key is not to let the pendulum swing too far to either side so that we exhaust ourselves in service or cloister ourselves in self-care.

We need to teach and model this for our kids.  Some are natural servants, others must be forced into it.  Some are inclined toward spiritual things, others must be taught the discipline of it.  Both are rewarded in the end because they are taught what matters to God.  Growth in these areas is a process requiring much diligence and grace...for all of us.  Don't shame them for their perceived inadequacy in either area.  Always encourage!  (I'm telling this to myself, first!) 

Last week I had the privilege of serving my beautiful friend, Emma.  As I and many others painted walls in her new home, we talked about her vision for her home, where it could be a gathering place and a stop-by-anytime kind of home.  I know it will be like that.  She sits and listens to you like Mary, but she makes sure you have coffee in your cup like Martha.  She does all this while living with breast cancer's harsh effects on her mind and body.  

I love the bothness and oneness of God's design for our lives.  

Listen then to this wonder!  How wonderful it is to be both outside and inside, to seize and to be seized, to see and at the same time to be what is seen, to hold and to be held. 
-Meister Eckhart

The Great Divide

That is the greatest divide in life:  from the point where we either go toward a more dilatory and useless type of Christian life; or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God.  

-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Photo by Dave Pearson, Colorado Rockies at sunrise

Our Easter Pictorial

Our Easter Devotional:  Each egg contains an icon from the Easter story.  We hung a new one each day as we read the Scriptures.

A sweet gift from a friend to remember Bullseye

Kool-Aid worked great this year.  For eggs and hair!

We made this Easter centerpiece for our lovely neighbor, Leanne.  We found the idea on Pinterest.

Homemade friend gifts.

Eye candy.  A live purple orchid.

On Teaching Children to Be Magnanimous

In our homeschool, we have spent much time discussing new words we encounter in books, reviewing science terms, and using vocabulary cartoons.  I encourage my kids to come up with better words than "that thing-y over there" and to name the emotions that they're feeling during some weeping and gnashing of teeth session.  In writing, we grab thesauruses.  In reading, we pull up online dictionaries.  

Every now and then I come upon a word that is so loaded with meaning and import that it becomes a devotional for the day.  Today the word is magnanimous.  We came across it as I read during lunch yesterday from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and I kind of stumbled over the pronunciation and skipped the discussion.  Today I plan to readdress it.  

A magnanimous person is high-minded and big-hearted.  He is chivalrous and generous of spirit.  She has a high moral code and is not easily offended.  Forgiveness comes quickly.  The word encompasses a sense of dignity, a delight in benevolence, a humility in victory, and a refusal to be petty. As I address character flaws in myself and my children, I think the quality of magnanimity is worthy of aspiration.  

And, of course, it is an excellent description of Christ.  

CS Lewis says the chest of a man is the seat of magnanimity.  

Now that just makes me breathe a little deeper and stand a little taller.