learning to pray

Two Approaches to God

2011-07-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

The night before my Grandpa Young died Kathleen and I took the girls to visit him in the hospital. I don't know what inspired our daughter Jessica to do this, but while we were there she got a hold of a small piece of paper and drew him a free ticket to heaven. Jessica's ticket was a beautiful expression of God's grace to a man who really understood grace and had tried to communicate it through the thousands of sermons he had preached over his lifetime.

One of my Grandpa's favorite authors, and maybe one of the inspirations for his grace filled approach to life, was the late Methodist missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones. According to Jones there are two approaches to God. There is self-salvation where we try and reach God through our own efforts, and there is God initiated salvation where God comes to us and offers us salvation as a gift that we can receive. Jones says the key word for self-salvation is "struggle" and the key word for God initiated salvation is "surrender."

Over the past few days I have been thinking about my Grandpa and the gift of my grace filled heritage as well as Jones' breakdown of these two approaches to God and have been deeply moved. Here's how Jones breaks it down...

Self salvation:

is never certain
never arrives
is self conscious and is a form of religion based upon our own efforts and achievements
striving
exhausting
guilt ridden and ashamed
self-condemning
depends on the will and constantly needs to be "whipped up"
depends on suppression of the spirit
exhausts itself on the problems of life
looks for a return on it's love and is disappointed if there is no return

God initiated salvation:

is certain
it helps us know we have arrived
is available to EVERYONE
is God conscious and based upon "the gift of God"
relaxed, receptive, exhilarating
non condemning, so it is free, abounding, joyous
the will surrendered then given back purified and released
our bodies, thoughts and emotions are surrendered and are also given back to us to be expressed on a deeper level
based on the inexhaustible resources of God; the more it gives, the more it has to give
asks for nothing except the privilege of giving and gets everything in return.

Learning to pray: As you pray and go throughout your day, I invite you to surrender your will, thoughts, emotions, ego, temptation, achievements, actions, self-loathing - EVERYTHING - to God, and receive the free gift of God's love and salvation.

leaf drops

2011-06-25T22:16:00.001-07:00

2011-05-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

spring flowers

2011-05-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Lilies of the field

2011-05-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon. With my cheap cameras it is hard to take pictures of flowers without the flower being over exposed. Flowers seem to reflect too much light for my cameras. As I used this picture as the focal point of my meditation this morning I started thinking about flowers and light, and thought: if I am made in the image of God and God is light then each created thing is light. Could we, like the flower, powerfully reflect the light of God?

Obviously, this is a rhetorical question, but if it is true, that I can reflect the light of God, then why don’t I? This is a sincere struggle for me. The rebel in me resists being light.

Reflection…

Maybe I do shine, and I don’t know it (rhetorical answer, therefore, part of the answer is to relax and simply let the light of God shine that is in me and always has been in me from the time of my first breath). Beyond my obvious dark side, and my tendency to live in it, why won’t I shine? Why do I resist being light? How can I be more like the flower and not hold back? How can I be more like the flower, and naturally let the light shine that is within me?

More pics...

All the best!

Why Didn't Someone Tell Me That Earlier? By Richard Rohr

2011-05-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

The line I often quote from Paula D’Arcy should be obvious: “God comes to you disguised as your life.” Why didn’t someone tell me that earlier—that this life is the raw material that I need to take seriously? Every day, what’s right in front of me is the agenda. And even more, the natural world all around us has all the lessons that we need for life, love, death, and salvation. Really! Just look and listen, and note how Jesus himself seems to have looked and listened to lilies, birds, hens, sheep, “red sky in the morning,” green and dry wood, moth and worm, etc.

You can see how merely believing doctrines and practicing rituals is very often a clever diversionary tactic to avoid my actual life—to avoid the agenda that is right in front of me every day, which is always messy, always muddy, always mundane, always ordinary—and all around me.

By Richard Rohr

Adapted from Emerging Church Conference, Swannick, England, 2010 (unpublished)

Pope on prayer

2011-05-04T21:12:00.001-07:00

Pope begins new Wednesday teaching series on prayer
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-begins-new-wednesday-teaching-series-on-prayer/

Pics from the Park

2011-04-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

Where do you go to pray? Do you have favorite place at home, or in a park somewhere? Below is one of my favorite spots a little bit off the trail in Houston Trail Head.

RIVER OF LOVE - Richard Rohr

2011-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

"When we learn to enjoy and trust the presence of God, we will naturally turn to that presence in prayer. When the church is no longer teaching the people how to pray, we could almost say it will have lost its reason for existence. Prayer is the ultimate empowerment of the people of God, and that may be why we clerics prefer laws and guilt, though they often disempower us and make us live in insufficiency and doubt. Prayer, however, gives us a sense of abundance and connectedness. An overemphasis on social prayer (i.e. attendance at services where the clergy happen to be in charge) has left many of our people passive, without a personal prayer life and comfortable with “handed-down religion” instead of first-hand experience. We don’t do God any favors by keeping the people passive and unaware."

~ Richard Rohr From Everything Belongs, p. 147

Desire

2011-03-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Where do contemplative people come from? Contemplative people come from all walks of life and personalities. Eventually, contemplative people seem to take on some of the same characteristics like simplicity, justice, caring for the poor, but these characteristics are more the fruit of a contemplative life than common characteristics present at the beginning of a contemplative journey.

The common characteristic of contemplative people is that they all seem to have been visited by grace in a way that tore back the veil to time and eternity. Author James Finley eloquently puts it this way, looking back:

…We are able to see moments of love, birth, religious experience, justice, aesthetic inspiration, or of sensing the incomprehensible stature of simple things, we glimpsed a great depth, which we intuit to be the hidden depths of the life we are living*…

These glimpses into the depths “have occasioned within us the DESIRE for a more abiding, daily awareness of the depths so fleetingly glimpsed*” along with the “riddles*” or mystery that go along with them.

This weekend I have been feeling this desire; the desire to abide, and to be constantly aware of the divinity of the present moment. How about you? Looking back...Was there a time in your life where you sensed there must be something more? Did you have a "glimpse into the depth of things? Maybe at some point you sensed the "incomprehensible stature of simple things?" Or through a "moment of love, birth, religious experience, justice, aesthetic inspiration" you sensed the "depths of the life you are living."

Learning to pray: If you have the desire to abide and live in the present moment and mystery of God’s grace, accept the invitation to “join in the general dance*.”

*“Contemplative Heart” James Finley

Litany of Penitence for Lent

2011-03-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people

We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,

We confess to you, Lord.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.
Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;
Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.
Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,
That we may show forth your glory in the world.
By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,
Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Richard Rohr Drops the Gloves! I Love It!

2010-11-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

Social Justice
The very fact that Glenn Beck, a national commentator, could get away with criticizing and even mocking the phrase “social justice” without major outcry, shows how comfortable and numbed much of our country and church have become. He dared to infer that it was a non-Christian concept and even sank to calling it socialism or communism. To my knowledge and disappointment, no bishop or church conference has publicly corrected him on this.

Can we not see that the other justice issues we are supposedly concerned about (such as abortion) are one “seamless garment,” to use Cardinal Bernardin’s brilliant metaphor? If social justice is not the foundation of God’s kingdom then it is hardly God’s kingdom at all, but merely tribalism.

Resources of Fr. Richard’s that address this topic include
A Lever and a Place to Stand (CD) and
Contemplation in Action (book)

Carrot On A Stick Christianity - Richard Rohr

2010-11-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

ADULT CHRISTIANITY

Paul says in Galatians 3 that the law will kill you, that the law leads to death, and only an experience of the Spirit has any saving power. Jesus says much the same with his mantra, “The law says, but I say. . .” (Matthew 5:20-45). This has had little effect on the church recently.

Many Christians and many clergy are still trapped under the law and remain in the first half of life, spiritually speaking. This is not the gospel, but its most common counterfeit. You always fail if you’re under the criteria of the law because you can never attain something that you already have—namely your daughterhood and sonship in God. The law will send you on a wild goose chase that never ends and usually makes you more and more legalistic. Religion at this level becomes an eternal carrot on a stick held out in front of you. Unfortunately, we see this in many rigid and unhappy Christians. Their disappointment with God and themselves is visible to all but themselves, I am afraid. We can do so much better.

Adapted from Adult Christianity and How to Get There CD

If you are inspired by Richard's Daily Meditations,
please consider attending Loving the Two Halves of Life:
The Further Journey, a conference hosted by the
Center for Action and Contemplation, January 21-23, 2011.

Mr. Lightbulb by Richard Rohr

2010-09-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Great people are usually humble. They understand and accept that they draw from another Source; they are satisfied to be an instrument. Their genius is not of their own making but a gift. They do great things precisely because they do not take first or final responsibility for their gift, and they don’t worry much about their failures. They understand that their life is not their own but has been entrusted to them. Someone Else has taken them seriously, and they feel profoundly respected, which is what men ultimately want and need.

A few weeks ago I was invited to meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town, South Africa. He told me that he—and I—were mere lightbulbs. We get all the credit and seem to be shining brightly for all to see, but we both know that if this lightbulb was unscrewed from its source for even a moment, the brightness would immediately stop.

He laughed hilariously afterwards, and gave me a wink of understanding!

Where is the abundance in my life?
And how do I pass it along to others?

FROM DAY 341 OF FR. RICHARD'S NEW BOOK: On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men

840,000 Saved

2010-09-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

840,000 saved through night and day prayer in South Africa in the last six years. For video CLICK HERE

EMERGING CHRISTIANITY by Richard Rohr

2010-09-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

"Jesus told people to love your enemies, but in effect we ended up condemning them or splitting them, because we did not give them the software to know how to actually do this. Again, we gave them the what but not the how. Emerging Christianity is going to have to emphasize orthopraxy (walking the talk) much more than mere orthodoxy (talking the walk). It is the walking that changes you and reveals your own deeper self to yourself (in ways that are not always flattering).

"Spiritual practices must invade, touch, and heal the unconscious, where 95% of our real motivation lies. Faith-filled actions, contemplative prayer, solitude, silence, and many life events have the power to expose and change our unconscious agendas and motivations. Most “belief systems” are just laid on top of our egoic world view, and unfortunately do little damage to it. We can say all the right words, practice all the right rituals, and our heart can remain cold and unconnected."

From Emerging Christianity: the conference recordings

Praying IN The Downtown East Side

2010-08-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

From 24-7 Prayer:

Vancouver 614

"They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing the cities destroyed long ago. They will revive them, though they have been deserted for many generations."

These words from Isaiah 61.4 have been the foundational scripture passage of our Salvation Army community, known as 614 Vancouver. It speaks about going back to places – cities in particular – that have been abandoned for generations, forgotten or ignored by the powers of this world. But it also speaks of great hope, and the possibility that those who have been oppressed, mourning, despairing and captive and now be those who rebuild, restore and renew. God made this promise to Israel originally, but we believe this same God wants to do the same things in our forgotten places, here and now.

We are a seven-year old Corps (church) plant of the Salvation Army. Even people within our denomination have a difficult time characterising us. We don't have meetings on Sunday, we don't play brass (well, maybe at Christmas) and we don't run a charity shop. All these things are fine, but we have chosen to focus our community around prayer, incarnational presence in our locality, joy and justice. READ MORE

Is It Dangerous To Meditate?

2010-08-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

Twice in the last month I had to defend my practice of contemplative prayer to well meaning Christians who looked at me like I had two heads and asked "isn't that dangerous?" No matter how much I argued to the contrary, they weren’t buying into the historically well supported benefits and basis for this type of prayer. It is so unfortunate that so many Christians are suspicious and make claims against meditation and contemplative prayer because it keeps people from participating in these transformative practices.

There are two paths that God will lead us on that help to transform our lives and make us more Godly; prayer, and suffering. One could argue that there is a third path as well, which is loving, unselfish service. The point is: by demonizing meditation, especially Christian meditation and contemplative prayer, we are keeping people from a deeper relationship with God and to a way of life that He may be calling them too.

It helps to realize that Christian meditation and contemplation differ from Eastern religious forms of meditation. In Christian meditation we take a scripture verse, poem, or attribute of God and ask God to help us understand it in a deeper way and apply it to our lives. We may do this by repeating it, or reading it several times, and mining it for deeper meaning and application with God's help (it’s “all gift!”). When practicing Christian contemplation we open ourselves up to God's presence. By faith we sit still and rest both our minds and our bodies. We don't stop thinking (which is nearly an impossible thing to do anyway), but we do let our thoughts pass as we gently return our gaze and attention to the presence of God. As Jackie Pullinger, the well known missionary to Hong Kong's gangs and drug addicts explains her practice of prayer, we "Son bathe." Again, contemplative prayer is a gift from God.

Eastern meditation doesn't necessarily differentiate between contemplation and meditation, and of course it isn't based on a relationship with God that is entered into through faith in Jesus Christ. They lump contemplation and meditation all together under the heading of “meditation.” I'm not going to go into Eastern practices of meditation, but I do want to make the point that prayer and meditation have been practiced by Jews and Christians for thousands of years. The Jewish and Christian practice of prayer is as old as Abraham, and has been practiced by the church in all sorts of ways since the death and resurrection of Jesus to the present day. There may be Christians practicing Eastern forms of meditation, but that’s not what I am talking about here. When we practice Christian meditation and contemplation, as it has been passed down to us by our Christian forefathers and mothers for a couple thousand years, we are not copying Eastern religions.

The Jesus Prayer for example can be traced back to when the early Egyptian contemplatives made the observation that Jesus didn't get into a big argument with the Devil during his temptation in the desert, but simply quoted scripture (Mt. 4:1-11). Out of that came repeating scripture, and eventually the Jesus prayer, which was to be repeated in times of prayer and when one experiences temptation or afflictive thoughts and emotions. "Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner." Could there be a more spiritually healthy practice than this? From a Christian perspective, this is the root, or the foundation of Christian meditation and contemplation. In the words of one ancient Saint “’No one’ it is written, ‘can say “Lord Jesus” except the Holy Spirit.”* (1Cor 12:3)

As we follow God down the path of Christian meditation and contemplation, over many months and years, we will be transformed and we will begin to see spiritual fruit. We will we have a greater desire to serve others, and we will become more patient, and loving. We will become less anxious, and gradually, our identity will come from a loving God and not our egos, or who anyone else says we are. This fruit will almost inexplicably come from “inside the cup.” (Luke 11.39)

Are there dangers to these Christian practices of prayer? Sure there are, just as there are dangers to almost any Christian practice that is entered into outside of Christian community and to excess. Personally, I wouldn't practice this type of prayer alone, and I wouldn’t practice it unless you have a sense that God is leading you down this path of prayer to deepen your relationship with Him. I would find a Christian who understands the process of Christian transformation and has gone through it in a deep way themselves. By its very nature Godly transformation is going to require that we deal with our character flaws and the abuse we have experienced in our lives, or done to others. As we practice Christian contemplative prayer these issues are undoubtedly going to surface as we open ourselves up to God without our normal distractions, religious or otherwise, so ask God to help you find support if you don’t have any.

If you believe God is leading you down the path to a life of prayer, please don't let the fears and claims of other Christians, no matter how well intentioned they might be, keep you from the gift of prayer and these wonderful, life giving, cross bearing, practices.

*”Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation” by Martin Laird, page 51.

Focusing Our Minds and Hearts

2010-08-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Volumes have been written on this subject, "Focusing Our Minds and Hearts," but Henry Nouwen boils it down beautifully here into a couple of paragraphs:

"How can we stay in solitude when we feel that deep urge to be distracted by people and events? The most simple way is to focus our minds and hearts on a word or picture that reminds us of God. By repeating quietly: "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want," or by gazing lovingly at an icon of Jesus, we can bring our restless minds to some rest and experience a gentle divine presence.

"This doesn't happen overnight. It asks a faithful practice. But when we spend a few moments every day just being with God, our endless distractions will gradually disappear."

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey

2010-08-08T11:51:00.001-07:00

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you." - Is. 26.3

"Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you and you will see the things that are in heaven." - St. Isaac the Syrian

"Let the remembrance of Jesus be with your every breath. Then indeed you will appreciate the value of stillness." - St. John Climacus

"The friend of silence comes close to God." - St. John Climacus

"God far exceeds all words that we can here express. In silence he is heard, in silence worshiped best." Angelus Silesius

SOURCE OF QUOTES: "Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation" by Dr. Martin Laird Great book if you are "learning to pray!"

God Cares

2010-07-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

From Richard Rohr:

God cares, for some wonderful reason, despite all of our smallness and silliness. Divine love does not depend on our doing nice or right things. Divine love is not determined by the worthiness of the object of love but by the Subject, who is always and only Love. God does not love us if we change, as we almost all think; but God loves us so that we can change.

No matter what we do, God, in great love and humility, says, “That’s what I work with. That’s all I work with!” It’s the mustard seed with which God does great things. Our life experiences, “good and bad alike,” are invited to the great wedding feast (Matthew 22:10). They are the raw material that God uses to prepare the banquet.

~Richard Rohr
June 2010

park pics 07.02.10

2010-07-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

freedom

2010-06-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

I found myself in a prison cell
Of my own making
I suppose I could trace my way back
And rehearse the millions of choices
That gradually took my freedom away
And landed me here

Or…

I could wait
Wait for Grace to open the cell door
And then simply walk outside
Onto a cliff
Alone, but not Alone
Into Mystery and the empty, dark, abyss

precious

2010-06-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

we are ALL "precious in His sight."

2010-06-19T15:06:00.001-07:00

James Finley at VST

2010-06-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

James Finley will be doing a weekend retreat at Vancouver School of Theology on July 9-11, 2010. Finley wrote the classic "merton's palace of nowhere," and another wonderful book for people wanting to practice contemplation called "The Contemplative Heart." For more information CLICK HERE. See you there!

2010-06-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

monday in the park - the day after sunday in the park!

2010-06-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday In The Park

2010-06-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

Wish y'all could have gone to the park with us today. Beautiful.

Sacred Space

2010-06-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

Check out "Sacred Space." Click on "ENGLISH" (if that's your preference!) and today's meditation. Nice!

House Concert

2010-06-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

House Concert - Monday June 28, 2010, 7.00PM - Our House.

With special guests from Nova Scotia - Jon Bryant, and Montreal - Gabrielle Papillon. There may even be a blonde haired blue eyed girl from BC - living in Toronto "in da house!" Bring a beverage and $12. (CD's will also be for sale) For a clue on who the artists will be see Jon Bryant, Gabriel Papillon AND Jess Janz

Jon's CD has been in our car CD player for over a year - you will love this guy! Been listening to Gabrielle on MySpace - beautiful! Can't wait to hear them both - LIVE and in our living room.

Liturgy

2010-06-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Stream

2010-06-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

Gently trickling
Hidden underneath fallen trees
The stream teaches me how to be.

God's Judgment

2010-06-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

From Richard Rohr:

FOLLOWING THE MYSTICS

Question of the Day: How does God’s judgment differ from that of human beings?
Those who pray learn to favor and prefer God’s judgment over that of human beings. God always outdoes any of us in generosity and in receptivity. God is always more loving than the person who has ever loved you the most! All you can bring is today’s latest product, whatever it is, for a new dose of love. It will always be immature on some level. It will always be inadequate, but that is not the point. It is not the perfection of the gift, but the willingness to lovingly offer the gift anyway, that pleases all parents and surely then the “Super Parent” that some of us call God.

God does not lead the soul by shaming it, just as a good parent would not shame their child. It doesn’t work anyway. We all have done it at times, and if we were raised in a punitive way ourselves, we still tend to think that’s the way to motivate people—by shaming them or making them feel guilty. I’ve done it enough and I’ve received it enough to know that it eventually backfires. It never works. We close down and stop trusting after that, and we use all kinds of defense mechanisms to avoid further vulnerability. So God uses a way that actually works, which is to love you at even deeper levels than you can know or love yourself.

Guidelines To Centering Prayer

2010-05-26T23:18:00.001-07:00

Watching the Cottonwood...

2010-05-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

Watching the Cottonwood
Gently fall from the trees.

It's:

Light

Free

Easy

Carried

Floating.

All good words for the soul.

2010-05-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

THE PRACTICE OF AWARENESS

2010-05-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

Another helpful gem from Richard Rohr...

Question of the Day: How do I define awareness?

Religious teachers, including Jesus, the Buddha, and many Hindu sages, are always telling us wake up—to be alert, alive, awake, attentive, or aware. But what does this really mean?

Being conscious or aware means:
• I drop to a level deeper than the passing show.
• I become the calm seer of my dramas from that level.
• I watch myself compassionately from a little distance, almost as if the “myself” is someone else—a “corpse” as St. Francis put it.
• I dis-identify with my own emotional noise, and no longer let it pull me here and there, up and down.
• I stop thinking about this or that and “collapse into” pure consciousness of nothing in particular. You don’t get there, you fall there.

At first, it does not feel like “me,” and is even unfamiliar territory, because up to now I thought my thinking was “me,” yet now my thinking has ceased. This is the accurate meaning of Jesus’ teaching on “losing oneself to find oneself” in Luke 9:24.

From "The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See", p.135 Richard Rohr

DO NOT JUDGE

2010-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I seem hardwired to be judgmental. Have I made any progress? Uhhhhh, who knows? I'm aware of it. I guess that’s moving in the right direction. Richard Rohr has written another amazing book called "The Naked Now" in which he addresses this problem and encourages us all, with God's help, to become "non-dualistic” thinkers. In other words stop thinking about who’s in and who’s out, who’s got it right and who’s got it wrong. Here's an excerpt from one of his talks...

“All spiritual teachers tell us “DO NOT JUDGE.” For those of us raised in a religious setting, this is very difficult. In a strange way, religion gave us all a Ph.D. in judgmentalism. It trained us very early in life to categorize, label, and critique. It told us all about worthiness and unworthiness. This judgmental mind told us what is right and wrong, who is gay or straight, and who is good or bad. This sort of mind never creates great people, because everybody has to fit into our way of thinking. At an early age our grid was complete. We had decided who fit in and who did not fit in. We fashioned our own little world.

“Christianity that divides the world in this manner and eliminates all troublesome people and all ideas different from our way of thinking cannot be mature religion. It cannot see the multiple gifts of each moment, nor the dark side that coexists with it. This mind does not lead us to awareness, and above all, this mind will find it impossible to contemplate. To practice awareness means you live in a spirit of communion; your world becomes alive and very spacious, and not divided by mere mental labels.”

Sun Shower

2010-04-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

The bench waiting for someone to come and sit by the slow moving river and the coastal mountain views

The sun dripping through the trees along with the rain drops

The small creek gently babbling away with new energy from the rain

The silence, the stillness, with lovely interruptions from the birds, the wind, and the rain

I went back to the woods today

2010-04-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

I went back to the woods today
To the ancient moss covered trees with their branches waving in the wind
To the ducks swimming silently on the black water of the pond
To the rain drops that eventually started to fall and make ripples on the surface of the water
To the peace below the distant road noise
To the birds singing their early spring songs
And to witness the buds on young trees ready to burst.

It had been a while
The door had been shut to this place
Today it was open
I didn't ask why, or ask for permission
I just went in
Without expectation or desire
Just to be
To enjoy

I had to learn to let go of this place, too
To allow Mystery to be Mystery and to be open to it everywhere
To be aware and be grateful for every breath no matter where I am
To be present to Presence in all places and every circumstance

I am learning to find Beauty, and to surrender to Love,
In the mundane and un-spectacular
In my living room and in cleaning out the cat box
In the car and in cutting the lawn
In negotiations and in making a sale
In traffic and in waiting for loved ones to arrive
and of course...in the woods

2010-01-19T19:03:00.001-08:00

tug on the fraser at dusk

2010-01-08T11:06:00.001-08:00

Stricken

2009-12-13T15:37:00.001-08:00

I have really been aware of my own spiritual poverty lately (which is good - I think?). I really need the mercy and grace of God - continuously! Came across this quote from Merton - funny, but so true. Kind of sums it up:

"Mere commitment to a decent program of action does not lift the curse. Our real choice is between being like Job, who knew he was stricken, and Job's friends who did not know that they were stricken too-though less obviously than he. (So they had answers!)"

"Go to prayer seeking not prayer, but God."

2009-12-03T16:55:00.000-08:00

"Go to prayer seeking not prayer, but God." James Finley - "merton's palace of nowhere"

I have spoken about this before, and just want to reiterate that learning to pray is a waste of time if my focus isn't on God. I get so frustrated with myself sometimes for not doing a better job of praying. What is that? I have even considered shutting this blog down, or at least changing the name because I don't want to mislead people. The important thing isn't prayer - it's God.

The goal and focus of my life is God and he will guide me in my relationship with Him. My job is to wait for God and to simply stay aware and awake and trust His action in me. That's it. That's what prayer and learning to pray is really all about.

2009-11-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

101 Spiritual Transformation Words and Phrases (Enjoy):

1. Paradox
2. Honesty (Pr 12.17)
3. Letting go (Col. 3.8)
4. Prayer (Mt 6.9)
5. Awareness
6. Presence
7. Powerless (Ro. 8.3)
8. Trust (Ro. 9.33)
9. Openness
10. Forgiveness (Mt 6.14)
11. Poverty (Mt. 5.3)
12. Affirming
13. Service (Gal. 5.13)
14. Stillness (Ps. 46.10)
15. Being centered
16. Silence (Ecc. 3.7)
17. Patience and all of the rest of the Fruits of the Spirit! (Gal 5:22)
18. Love, love, love (1. Cor. 13)
19. Love yourself, God and Others (Luke 10.27)
20. Nurture
21. Rest (Deut 33.12)
22. Heart (Pr. 3.5)
23. Obey (John 14.23)
24. Faith (Ro. 1.17)
25. Float
26. Process
27. Mercy (Jas 2.13)
28. Freedom (2 Co. 3.17)
29. Mystery (Eph 5.32)
30. Worship (John 4.24)
31. Follow (Mt. 4.19)
32. Reality
33. Humanness (Heb 2.14)
34. Responsibility
35. Asking for help (1 Sa. 7.12)
36. Accepting help (Jn. 1.16)
37. Focus on what needs to be changed in me, not in the world (Mt. 23.26)
38. Listening (1 Sa. 3.9)
39. Tasting (Ps. 34.8)
40. Seeing (Ps. 34.8)
41. Childlike (Lk. 10.21)
42. Sabbath (Ex. 20.8)
43. Deliverance (Ro. 11.26)
44. Simplicity (Pr. 8.5)
45. Seek the Kingdom first (Mt.6.33)
46. Life (Jn. 1.4)
47. Death (Jn. 12.23-28)
48. and Resurrection (Jn. 12.23-28)
49. Experience
50. Inner Journey
51. Generosity (2 Co. 8.7)
52. Suffering (1. Pe 4.1)
53. Wholeness (Eph 4.13)
54. Miracles (1. Co 12.10)
55. Justice (Ps. 33.5)
56. Emptiness (Phil. 2)
57. Dialogue
58. Humility (Eph. 4.2)
59. Contemplation
60. Risk
61. Acceptance
62. Healthy detachment
63. Breath
64. Discernment
65. Self-surrender (Lk. 9.23)
66. Wisdom (Pr. 11.30)
67. Community
68. The Body of Christ (1. Co. 12.13)
69. Live by the Spirit (Gal. 5.22)
70. Letting go of our egos
71. Co-creation
72. Co-operation
73. “Circles not pyramids”
74. Truth
75. Journey (not the band)
76. Healthy dependence
77. Trinity (Mt. 28.19)
78. Invitation (Mt. 4.19)
79. Desire
80. Hope (Heb. 11.1)
81. Letting go of the past (Is. 43.18)
82. Letting go of the future
83. Living in the “Now”
84. Subtraction before addition
85. Spaciousness
86. Tears
87. Laughter
88. Joy (Jn. 15.11)
89. Transparency
90. Mess
91. Deep calling unto deep (Ps 42.7)
92. Practice
93. Grace (2 Pe. 3.18)
94. Nothing
95. A blank slate
96. Desert (Mk 1.13)
97. Darkness
98. Light (Jn. 3.19)
99. Eternal (Jn. 3.16)
100. Vulnerable
101. Jesus (1 Jn. 2.6)

If you have any other transformational words or verses, let me know. Thanks.

2009-11-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

found this beautiful picture on the coldplay website. enjoy!:

Made in China

2009-11-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

From My Life is Average - "Today, while driving my 4 year old nephew and his neighbor to preschool, his neighbor (who recently started sunday school at her church) informed him that "God made everything." My nephew thought about this for a moment then replied, "I don't think so, a lot of stuff is made in China."

Welcoming Prayer

2009-11-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

I am feeling led to practice this prayer again. Enjoy!

Gently become aware of your body and your interior state.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment
Because I know it is for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions.

I let go of my desire for security.
I let go of my desire for approval.
I let go of my desire for control.
I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God and the healing action and grace within.
Welcoming Prayer, p. 12

The welcoming prayer is a practice of ‘letting go’ in the present moment,
in the ordinary routines of daily life.

It is prayer because of our intention and consent
to God’s presence and action in our lives.
Welcoming Prayer, p. 8

~
“the ordinary events of daily life become our practice…
The routine of daily life is a path to holiness…
Contemplative prayer is aimed at
transforming daily life with its never-ending
round of ordinary activities.”
Father Thomas Keating, Open Mind Open Heart, p.125

~

THE MIND DECIEVES.
THE BODY NEVER LIES.
LISTEN TO THE WISDOM OF YOUR BODY.
HEAR ITS TRUTH.
THE WELCOMING PRAYER.
Welcoming Prayer, p. 11

~
“Over time through a series of unmet needs we exaggerate unconscious programs for happiness, known as ‘energy centers’: security/survival, affection/esteem, power/control. These unmet needs combine to motivate the false-self system…if you work at dismantling the energy centers that cause the upsetting emotions, your efforts will extend the good effects of centering prayer into every aspect of daily life.
Father Thomas Keating, Open Mind Open Heart, p.125

~
The faithful practice of both centering prayer and the welcoming prayer is the one two punch that helps me to embrace God in every moment – in every event.
Cathy McCarthy, Welcoming Prayer, p. 18

~

“Gently become aware of your body and your interior state”…”feel it! Don’t think about it – feel it your body. Remember, your head is a part of your body.”
Welcoming Prayer, p. 20

“Welcome”…”What I ‘welcome’ in the welcoming prayer practice is not the feeling, emotion, thought or body sensation, but God’s activity in them.”
Therese Saulnier, Welcoming Prayer, p. 26

~
“I let go…” Inevitably I find that one of these energy centers is robbing me of the peace of Christ and just by naming them I discover what it is.

”I open to the love and presence of God and the healing action and grace within…” This is a faithful action, or faith-filled action. Another act of letting go and trusting God to heal you and love you, maybe in ways you would never expect.

Source: Contemplative Outreach
Link: READ MORE

When you regarded me...

2009-10-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

When you regarded me
Your eyes imprinted your grace in me,
In this, you loved me again,
And thus my eyes merited
To also love what you see in me...
Let us go forth together to see ourselves in Your beauty.

- ST, JOHN OF THE CROSS, Spiritual Canticle 32, 33

Prayer teaches us to rest in God's loving gaze and accept and believe that He loves what he sees in all of us.

The Created Order as Sacrament

2009-09-22T13:44:00.001-07:00

The Created Order as Sacrament by Henri Nouwen

When God took on flesh in Jesus Christ, the uncreated and the created, the eternal and the temporal, the divine and the human became united. This unity meant that all that is mortal now points to the immortal, all that is finite now points to the infinite. In and through Jesus all creation has become like a splendid veil, through which the face of God is revealed to us.

This is called the sacramental quality of the created order. All that is is sacred because all that is speaks of God's redeeming love. Seas and winds, mountains and trees, sun, moon, and stars, and all the animals and people have become sacred windows offering us glimpses of God.

Abba

2009-09-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

A lot of different analogies have been used for God’s grace. For example, there are biblical analogies like the just and the unjust judge, even God as a jilted lover who loves anyway. This morning I was thinking of God’s grace, and God being like a parent, in a way.

All the way through our children’s childhood my wife and I had a choice to be present, or not be present to our children. Early on we had this sense that our kids couldn’t get enough of us. They wanted us to be around and present to them as much as possible. Of course, as they grew older their desire to have us around diminished, but even at 19 and 20 they still like to have us around once and while.

As parents we had a choice to be present, loving and caring, or to not be present, loving and caring. This choice was tested continually by the way our kids behaved, the way we reacted to their behavior, and our own life challenges. As we look back now I think a regret we have as parents is that we weren’t more present to our children, especially in terms of being distracted by our own “stuff,” but thankfully, God is not like us.

I know it’s an over - used cliché, but we are all God’s children. He cared enough to live and die for us and now our lives are hidden with God for eternity. God has made peace with humanity. Since the beginning of time God has had only one desire and that is to love. We only need to make peace with God ourselves by believing in him and gradually growing in the knowledge and the awareness of God’s love for us. We may have the sense at times that God has abandoned us, but this is only a sense, not a theological fact. God is always there. If he is absent in any “sense”, it’s only because he wants us discover His presence in new and loving ways, and to discover his love to even greater depths.

We may not know it, but like children, we can’t get enough of God. As we mature in our relationship with God, we learn to relate to God in different ways as our confidence in his loving presence grows. God knows this. He knows how we are made and he loves us enough to speak to us, reach out to us, and be present to us in unique ways according to how he has made us, and our life circumstances.

Prayer teaches us to rest in God’s grace and his eternal embrace. We are his children.

The Gift

2009-09-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

"THE GIFT" by Richard Rohr
Question of the day:
How and when have I surrendered to God?

It has been said many times that, after transformation, you seldom have the feeling you have found anything. It feels much more like Someone found you!

You find yourself having been grabbed, being held, and being Someone’s beloved. At first, you do not even know what is going on. All you know is that it is a most wondrous undergoing, but an undergoing nevertheless. You know you have been”had” (see Jeremiah 20:7-9 or Isaiah 6:4-7). You are in Someone Else’s grip.

How else will anybody rightly give up control? They won’t. They’ll use religion itself as a disguised way of taking control, or try to control God by their good behavior.

From The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (pp.18-19)

Current mantra:
God is in me and I am in God.

Keeping It Together

2009-09-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Life lesson for me...

"Keeping It Together" by Henry Nouwen

How can we not lose our souls when everything and everybody pulls us in the most different directions? How can we "keep it together" when we are constantly torn apart?

Jesus says: "Not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives" (Luke 21:18-19). We can only survive our world when we trust that God knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We can only keep it together when we believe that God holds us together. We can only win our lives when we remain faithful to the truth that every little part of us, yes, every hair, is completely safe in the divine embrace of our Lord. To say it differently: When we keep living a spiritual life, we have nothing to be afraid of.

Wm. Paul Young author of "The Shack"

2009-06-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

EGO & SOUL

2009-05-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

By Richard RohrQuestion of the day:
How do I still my soul?

None of us are completely present. So don’t feel guilty, but do know presence is still the great teacher, those enlightened moments that come now and then. When we are manipulating, changing, controlling, and fixing, we are not there yet. We cannot be present to something and trying to change it at the same time.

The calculating mind is the opposite of the contemplative mind. The first is taught by the systems of our world, the second by the Holy Spirit.

We might consider this prayer to try to draw ourselves into a contemplative frame of mind:
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
From Everything Belongs, p. 61

I Graduated!

2009-05-24T07:27:00.001-07:00

I am now a certified Spriritual Director! I would HIGHLY recommend the SoulStream Spiritual Direction Course and anything else this community offers to anyone who is interested. To check it out CLICK HERE

I think this phrase sums up SoulStream and what God is doing in my life: "Bless the Lord oh my soul, who leads me into life" Taize Song

Take Care!

LIVING IN THE NOW

2009-05-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is going in my journal. From Richard Rohr:

Question of the day:
How do we allow God to help us live in the moment?

Let us be present to the now.
It’s all we have and it’s where God will always speak to us.
The now holds everything, rejects nothing and,
therefore, can receive God, too.
Help us be present to the place we’re most afraid of,
because it always feels empty, it always feels boring,
it always feels like it’s not enough.
Help us find some space within that we don’t try to fill
with ideas or opinions.
Help us to create inner space,
because you always show yourself best where we are
hungry and empty.
Keep us out of the way,
so there is always room enough for you.

Amen.

From Hope Against Darkness, p. 122

2009-05-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Awareness of the sacred in life is what holds our world together and the lack of awareness and sacred care is what is tearing our world apart.

Joan Chittister "Wisdom Distilled from the Daily"

Dealing With Life's Difficulties

2009-04-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Jeff Imbach's weekly quote has to with dealing with change. - click here

24

2009-04-23T09:25:00.000-07:00

"If I had to advise one thing for spiritual growth it would be silence."

Richard Rohr "Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction"

Many of us, including me, live in a world of constant noise and activity and it doesn't take a priest to too tell us, or maybe it does, that the best thing for our souls is a good dose of silence once and a while.

To fulfill a requirement for a course I’m taking I took a day off recently to be silent for 24 hours and it was so good! As required, I didn't take anything but my Bible and my journal. I slept under the stars for a while, watched ducks and bald eagles play on, and over, the lake, was blown away by the majesty and beauty of the coastal mountains, and felt the rhythm of life and the joy of being present for the first time in a long time.

At one point I thought God was telling me to listen, so I listened. At another point I thought God was telling me to watch, so I watched, and close to the end of the 24 hours in silence I thought God told me to practice centering prayer, so I did that too.

No radio. No TV. Other than nature and neighbors playing and working in their yards, there was no noise, or conversations.

During the 24 hours of silence; He made me lie down in green pastures, He led me beside still waters, He restored my soul.

Creating Space for God by Henri Nouwen

2009-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Oh man, did this ever hit me where I live. Enjoy...

Discipline is the other side of discipleship. Discipleship without discipline is like waiting to run in the marathon without ever practicing. Discipline without discipleship is like always practicing for the marathon but never participating. It is important, however, to realize that discipline in the spiritual life is not the same as discipline in sports. Discipline in sports is the concentrated effort to master the body so that it can obey the mind better. Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to God's guidance.

Thus, discipline is the creation of boundaries that keep time and space open for God. Solitude requires discipline, worship requires discipline, caring for others requires discipline. They all ask us to set apart a time and a place where God's gracious presence can be acknowledged and responded to.

________________________________________

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

Visit HenriNouwen.org for more inspiration!

At A Stop Light In Surrey

2009-02-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

I was driving around being "Real Estate Rod" yesterday when I looked over at the car next to me. The woman in the passenger seat was reading one of those little devotionals like "Our Daily Bread," or something, to her husband. I have to admit I had a twinge of judgment thinking they looked a little too religious for my liking, but right on the heals of that thought, the beauty of what was taking place in their car struck me. I know that sounds a little over the top, but somehow I immediately sensed the presence of God as I could see how attentive and absorbed they were in what they were reading.

My dad does his morning devotions with a little book like the one they were reading, and he often sends them to his four kids. When I take the time to prayerfully read what he e-mails us, and I connect with it in that mysterious, but now familiar way, I have to admit, it has a God affect on my day.

Another way to say it is: this type of good old fashioned devotional grounds me in God's presence and helps to inform my day. It helps me to fulfill Saint James' plea for faith and action in an inside out sort of way, which is one of the things all of us who follow Jesus are hoping for, isn't it? I know many of us have had this experience where I read a passage of scripture and then that same day I have a chance to apply it. Maybe, I have the opportunity to comfort someone with it, or give hope, or make a personal decision, or take a stand when tempted or opposed.

See what a beautiful thing this is? Inevitably, I experience more joy, more love, and more life when I read scripture, or our one of my various devotionals, and I allow it to sink in and then cooperate with God and apply it during the day.

Allowing it to SINK IN has to be one of the keys to all this type of devotional discipline, doesn't it? In Colossians 3:15 it says "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..." The word "Let" means to "allow" the peace of Christ to rule in my heart. I could also say it means to "dip into" the peace of Christ, like a bucket being lowered and then dipped into the water at the bottom of a deep well. I LOVE this way of saying it, “dip into” the peace of Christ!

Maybe this is what I saw in one brief moment with the couple in the car next to me yesterday. I had the privilege of seeing someone else "dipping into"" the well at a stop light in the middle of Surrey, and the beauty, and the wonder of it all drew me in, and allowed me to take a dip too.

- Rod

2009-02-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

In learning to pray, I am learning to let go. Through Spiritual Direction I am learning to let God save me, instead of trying to save myself. What a huge paradigm shift this is. I never realized what a striver I am when it comes to my own salvation and ongoing relationship with God.

Letting go is also one of the ways I can "pray continually," and all of life becomes prayer. This is an element of being poor in spirit, and, of course, it's all a gift, not something to be striven for.

Like usual, Richard Rohr says it way better than I ever could, so enjoy!...

From Richard Rohr http://www.cacradicalgrace.org:

LETTING GO

Question of the day:
What is God asking me to surrender?

Risk all for love, Jesus tells us, even your own life. Give that to me and let me save it. The healthy religious person is the one who allows God to save.

If this is the ideal Christian attitude toward God, then Mary is the ideal Christian of the Gospels. She sums up in herself the attitude of the poor one whom God is able to save. She is deeply aware of her own emptiness without God (Luke 1:52). She longs for the fulfillment of God’s promise (1:54); she has left her self open, available for God’s work (1:45, 49). And when the call comes, she makes a full personal surrender: “Let it be!” (1:38).

from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 322, day 333

Current mantra: Let go…let God

GOD'S LOVE

2009-02-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

From Richard Rohr http://www.cacradicalgrace.org:

Question of the day - When do I most feel I'm inside God's love?

"The deepest level of communication is communion. When we know and love someone we are simply happy to be near them. We feel power and energy passing between us. That is the power of prayer. That is what we must do to bask in the sunshine of God's love. The word to us is, "Don't just do something; stand there!"

To receive the love of God is to recognize it is all around us, above us and beneath us; speaking to us through every person, every flower, every trial and situation. Stop knocking on the door: You’re already inside!"

from The Great Themes of Scripture, p.383

Current mantra - I know and believe the love God has for me

Simple Metaphors

2009-02-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

"As you listen to the examples and the metaphors of Jesus, they're much more nature based, lifestyle based, relationship based, much more than church based or religion based. He simply says "Look at the lilies of the field."

"He's using normal language that everybody can understand – not highfalutin theology, not highfalutin philosophy. Just look at things as they are and see what's real and see what's unreal."

Richard Rohr
from the CAC webcast, Nov. 8, 2008:
What is The Emerging Church?

Building Inner Bridges

2009-01-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

Prayer is the bridge between our conscious and unconscious lives. Often there is a large abyss between our thoughts, words, and actions, and the many images that emerge in our daydreams and night dreams. To pray is to connect these two sides of our lives by going to the place where God dwells. Prayer is "soul work" because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one and where God is with us in the most intimate way.

Thus, we must pray without ceasing so that we can become truly whole and holy.

Henri Noewen

From Unceasing Thinking to Unceasing Prayer

2009-01-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

Our minds are always active. We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking. You might say our thinking is "unceasing." Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, guilt feelings, and fears. Our ability to think is our greatest gift, but it is also the source of our greatest pain. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thoughts? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.

Let's break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

2008-12-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day in my favorite spot. I'm so fortunate to have a place like this, only moments from my home. I had to walk through knee deep snow to get here today. Accept for a few ducks and a couple of ravens that hang out in this area, the silence was palpable. Makes it very easy to worship and feel the connection. Merry Christmas!

The Janz Family Getting Down

2008-12-23T10:18:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Winter In the Prayer Spot

2008-12-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

Mary Oliver

2008-12-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

My friend and neighbour Scott Whitehouse took this picture and posted it on Facebook. I ripped it off (with permission) and added the verse. See Soulstream.org for a larger version or double click on the picture. Merry Christmas!

Preparation for the Messiah - By Richard Rohr

2008-12-16T10:10:00.000-08:00

Question of the day:
How are you finding room for Jesus?

On retreat I once wrote in my journal, “How good of you, God, to make truth a relationship instead of an idea. Now there is room between you and me for growth, for conversation, for exception, for the infinite understandings created by intimacy, for the possibility to give back and to give something to You—as if I could give anything back to You. You offer the possibility to undo, to please, to apologize, to change, to surrender. There’s room for stages and for suffering, for mutual passion and mutual pity. There’s room for mutual everything.”

from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality p 67

Advent is all about waiting

2008-12-15T10:57:00.001-08:00

"Advent is all about waiting.

"And as one wag said, "The trouble with waiting is that it takes so damn long!"

"Often, our own lives seem caught in the doldrums, with no sense of impetus and no safe harbour in sight. Who knows where Jesus will be born in our experience.

"The stable reassures us that, in our waiting, we can anticipate Jesus' presence to become manifest in our lives in the most unlikely of situations. Sometimes the waiting is about gradually having to let go of all expectations of where God will show up and be attentive to the oddest of places for the surprise of grace.

"Happy waiting!"

Jeff Imbach - www.soulstream.org

Weekly Newsletters

2008-12-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

Looking for something more? Check out the following:

Henry Nouwen: Daily and Weekly e-mail newsletters - Click Here

Richard Rohr: Daily and Weekly Newsletters, Audio Homilies - Click Here

His latest Homilie, December 7, 2008 "Not a reward but a Commitment" is absolutely wonderful!!! It's all about how God's love is a commitment to us, not a reward. A MUST LISTEN. Here's the link: Click Here

LOSER

2008-12-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

In Junior High my friends and I would play tennis during the summer. Somehow there ended up being four of us, so we would play doubles on a regular basis. My friend Tom and I would play Greg and Brent, and although we would come close, Tom and I would NEVER win! Brent and Greg started calling us “loooosers.” Tom and I decided to go with it and went out and got ourselves t-shirts with “Loser 1” and “Loser 2” printed on them. I’ve sometimes wondered if this had some kind of lasting effect on me and now I am psychologically scared forever!

Stuff happens doesn’t it? Negative stuff. Stuff that makes us feel like a loser sometimes. As a result we pick up baggage along the way. Some of us have baggage that we have no idea where it came from; we just know we have it. Then we do all kinds things to deal with the baggage which creates more baggage, and a deep pit to try and climb out of. Dreams fade, relationships fail, we fail, and it can all begin to make a person feel like…a loser.

Now that you are thoroughly depressed let me tell you some good news. God has a solution for our feelings of failure, loss, and inadequacy. God desperately loves us. Let me say it again, God desperately loves us, and win or lose, He takes great pleasure in us. He looks right past all of our losses, weaknesses, failures, and sins because of Jesus and loves us more than we can imagine. Think of the New Testament examples, the Father longing for his son to return, the shepherd leaving all his sheep to go find the one that is lost, the owner of a coin turning her house upside down to find the lost coin (Luke 15). All of these stories have a tinge of desperation to them and they represent how God longs to be with us and save those who are lost.

...here is your reason to find your joy in me; see my love and find your joy in me, for more than anything this pleases me most." Julian of Norwich

I don’t think I can say it strongly enough – GOD LONGS TO BE WITH US, but we run, and we hide (Isaiah 30:15-18) Apparently, running from God’s love has been going on since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve hid from God. The Israelites rebelled and ran to other gods. In the New Testament some of the early disciples chose the law over a loving relationship with God, and modern day Christians and non-Christians? We do all of the above and more. Unfortunately, running doesn’t help. Running only multiplies our feelings of loss and pain, and further entrenches defeating patterns into our lives.

Sometimes feeling like a loser affects our openness to God. We somehow don’t think we are worthy of God’s love, or attention if we are not winning, successful, or “victorious” to use a Christian word. But if winning and victory were the conditions, or pre-requisites to receive God’s love, none of us would qualify. Besides, God took care of all that on the cross. He is our victory. We’re all winners in God’s eyes because of what Jesus did for us.

Aren’t you grateful for what God has done: that he loved us first, and keeps on loving us no matter what? That he saved us and forgave us? That He delights in all that He has done for us and is pleased with us. I don’t know about you, but I would be so lost and without hope if it wasn’t for the love and saving grace of God. This is good news for many of us who can’t quite seem to “get it together,” and probably never will.

Meditating on this - His unconditional love, His saving grace, His kindness, His desire to be with me, and the mind blowing mystery that He is pleased with me in spite of all the stupid things I have done - makes me want to run TO Him, not away from Him. He is my victory and He is yours too.

"Take your joy in your Savior and your salvation" Julian of Norwich

Learning to Pray: Repent (turn to God), rest, be quiet, trust

Lord, teach us to pray

2008-11-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid I found out my dad was pretty good with a Yo-Yo. I discovered this when I brought one home one day. He could make it “sleep,” “walk the dog,” and even do that triangle move, whatever that’s called (like the dudes in this picture). I never knew he was so talented. Of course, the first thing I wanted him to do was show me how to do all those cool tricks. He could do something that I couldn’t do and I wanted to know how he did it. I could picture myself at recess becoming the coolest kid in the third grade because I could “walk the dog!”

In Luke 11.1 we find the disciples wanting to learn something from Jesus far more significant and life changing than Yo-Yo tricks. Luke 11.1 says:

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, ...’"

We usually don’t ask just anybody to teach us stuff. For us to ask to be taught there usually has to be something special about the way they do things, or who they are. At this point, the disciples have been watching Jesus, spending time with him, and hearing him teach. They know he has a special relationship with the Father, so after he returns from a time of prayer they say, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Even though the disciples requested it, I can’t help but sense God’s invitation in all of this. I love that the disciples were drawn to prayer by Jesus’ example. His life and his close relationship with the Father provided the invitation. Jesus didn’t have to say, “When I get back we’re going to have a seminar called Prayer 101, so have some paper and pens ready.” When he got back from praying the disciples were waiting for the chance, the opportunity, to be taught to pray like Jesus prayed. “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Maybe the disciples were clamoring for power like they usually did, but I also can’t help but wonder who put the desire to pray in the disciple’s hearts in the first place. Out of his love and compassion the Father must have been wooing them, drawing them closer, and preparing them for the future (John 6:44). He knew that someday they would need to connect with the Father just like Jesus did. He knew they would need to pray just as badly as they needed air to breath. We need it just as badly too. Sadly, we aren’t as in touch with this need as the disciples were at this point in their lives. God longs for us to communicate with Him and he longs to communicate his love and mercy to us too. When the disciples saw that it was possible to communicate with the Father, or Abba as Jesus intimately called Him, they responded saying, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

If Jesus got away to pray, the disciples must have been thinking, “there really must be something to this prayer thing.” God had something wonderful waiting for them. He has something wonderful waiting for us too as we learn to pray. Maybe they were hoping to have the same kind of relationship with the Father that Jesus had, and they sensed that prayer was part of the equation. “Lord, teach us to pray.”

What must it have been like for the disciples to be around Jesus? The disciples see something extraordinary in the life of Jesus and they want to know what he knew, they wanted to know how he prayed. They wanted what Jesus had. Maybe they were thinking: Where does his extraordinary relationship with the Father come from? Where does his power and authority come from? Where does his compassion and grace come from? His love? His mental toughness? His entirely different paradigm than the highly religious, judgmental, system we live under? His purity? His incredible knowledge of God's will, and his willingness and courage to carry it all of the time? Could prayer be part of the answer? “Lord, teach us to pray.”

You and I know technique is not the answer, but maybe they were thinking it was the way he prayed. Maybe they were thinking it came from the times he slipped away in the middle of the night, or got up before all of them to go and pray. Maybe it was his 40 days in the desert fasting and praying. Maybe it was the time he spent praying and learning in the temple. Maybe it was the way he commanded demons to flee and they did. In reality, it was just that Jesus wanted, and needed, to be alone with the One he loved, and the One he loved wanted to be with him too. “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Of all the things the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them they say, "Lord, teach us to pray."

When Jesus responds he doesn’t give them a lot of technique, or explanation, he just prays and shows them how to pray by example.

He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "

2008-11-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

We had a great discussion this morning at Church led by our Pastor about learning to pray. I hope my fellow church-mates don’t mind me posting their thoughts. Names and genders have been left out to protect the not so innocent and to protect me from any pain they may want to inflict on me after reading this! Here are some of the things I heard:

One person spoke of how their prayer time, mostly in the car, has primarily turned into a time of gratefulness. Amazingly enough, this prayer has come out of a particularly difficult few years.

Another person spoke of how it helps them to pray when they find themselves in difficult situations if they have been spending time reading scripture, or intentionally getting away to be with God. They described this time as creating a “reservoir” that they can tap into when they need it.

One person said they wanted to learn to “communicate with God as opposed to just talking to God.” I thought that was a wonderful desire and a beautiful way of describing what prayer is all about.

One other person said how good it can be to have people pray for you, especially experienced intercessors, and how they noticed the difference it made. This made me think of my 91 year old Grandpa who prays for our whole family on a regular basis.

Someone else spoke about reading Psalms until they connected with God. They thought it was interesting how David was called “a man after God’s own heart” and yet he was such a whiner. BUT, as this person pointed out, David and the other Psalmist’s would whine and complain until they could say, “God I know you are with me, and You are awesome.”

Another person spoke from recent personal experience about the difficulty of praying according to God’s will when their own desire began to seem like something different than what they thought God’s will was. The kicker was the thing this person desired was a VERY good thing and something we were all praying would happen. It wasn’t something like winning the lottery, but something very personal and potentially wonderful. This person described how they, with God's help, had come to a place of peace and acceptance with God’s will and how things eventually transpired. Wow.

“PRAYER ITSELF IS AN ART WHICH ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN TEACH US. PRAY FOR PRAYER. PRAY UNTIL YOU CAN REALLY PRAY!” C.H. Spurgeon

A real desire to wait on God and discover His heart and will was expressed a number of times. The question was raised, “how do we do that?” It made me think of Dallas Willard in his book “The Spirit of the Disciplines" and to summarize with one word it simply takes “practice.” One time Ryan Walter, a former professional hockey player, told me he worked it out one time and figured he had spent tens of thousands of hours on the ice, so that what looked so natural in a game had actually come from hours and hours of practice. Seems kind of unspiritual, but learning to pray simply takes practice. Practice in waiting, listening, being open, aware, and responding to God’s love and presence.

All of these observations came from deep, sometimes heartbreaking situations. It made me appreciate their observations all the more. It’s one of the things I love about my little church. Everyone is so real. If life sucks, or they connect with God by climbing trees, or praying doesn’t seem to be working for them, they say so.

One thing that was ringing in my ears this morning was the disciple’s request of Jesus to “teach us to pray.” We can read books, and even learn from others, and it’s all good, but how many of us just sit down with God for a few minutes a day and simply ask Him to teach us to pray like the disciples did? I believe it is something He will do. It is something He wants to do. It’s a wonderful, sometimes painful, journey to go on with God.

I’ve been asking God to teach me to pray most of my adult life. Most of that time has been marked by absolute, abject failure in so many ways. I sometimes feel like Paul and want to tell people that I am the worst sinner in Christendom. However, this time has also had a little bit of wonderful eternal bliss and God's grace mixed in too. All I can say is, He is teaching me to pray and I hope he never stops because after all this time I still desperately need Him, and still feel like a beginner.

2008-11-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

2008-11-17T10:47:00.000-08:00

“Contemplation is not the pleasant reaction to a celestial sunset, nor is it the perpetual twitter of heavenly birdsong. It is not even an emotion. It is the awareness of God, known and loved at the core of one’s being.”

Clifton Wolters, Introduction to The Cloud of Unknowing, Penguin, p. 36

Process of Conversion

2008-11-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Say “Yes” to Jesus
Mother Theresa of Calcutta

The process of conversion begins with genuine openness to change…Grace is the presence and action of Christ in our lives inviting us to let go of where we are now and to be open to the new values that are born every time we penetrate to a new understanding of the Gospel.

Moreover , Jesus calls us to repent not just once; it is an invitation that keeps recurring. In the liturgy it recurs several times a year, especially during Advent and Lent . It may also occur at other times through circumstances: disappointments, personal tragedy, or the bursting into consciousness of some compulsion or secret motive that we were not aware of.

A crisis in our lives is not a reason to run away; it is the voice of Christ inviting us to accept more of the divine light. More of the divine light means more of what the divine light reveals, which is divine life. And the more divine life we receive, the more we perceive that divine life is pure love.

Thomas Keating, “Awakenings” pg 4-5, The Crossroads Publishing Company

When I Am Among the Trees

2008-10-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks, the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness .
I would almost say they save me, daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

From Thirst, poems by Mary Oliver

The Last Addiction

2008-10-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

As one book reviewer said of this book "We're all addicts and we all have hope." This is hands down the best book I have ever read on addiction. What is the last addiction that we all have? You'll have to read this book to find out!

jess

2008-08-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

a few songs by jess:

"you are beautiful to me" - ">

"we all fall down" -

"i still believe in love" -

Make Yourself At Home

2008-07-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed that one of the first things we often say to our house guests is "Please make yourself at home?" On the flip side of that expression, isn't wonderful when you go to someone's house and they really make you feel comfortable and welcome? In this case you leave thinking, "they really made me feel at home."

As my good friend Jesse spoke on love last Sunday he read John 14 from the version of the Bible called The Message and this phrase stood out to me as he read it, "Make yourself at home in my love." (Several of my blogs have come from Jesse's messages - he always gets me thinking...) God wants me to feel at home in his love. As I have thought about being at home in God’s love, the importance of this phrase has had a deepening impact on me as I am realizing that God has been deepening this feeling of being at home in his love for a lot of years now.

Feeling at home in God’s love is absolutely foundational to a free, trusting, loving relationship with God. It's one of those phrases that sounds so simple, but in reality may take a lifetime to truly grasp and experience. Like staying in a stranger's home and trying to feel comfortable, for me at least, I haven’t always felt at home in God’s love. There are things to consider when it comes to prayer that can help me feel more at home in God's love.

God is love and he is continually drawing me to Him and moving in my life because he loves me and wants to have a relationship with me. Prayer is all about being open and accepting God’s invitation to be at home in his love.

One of my friends claims that the only thing he has ever heard God say to him is that God loves him. The longer I live and the more I listen to God, I have to agree with him. Even when God disciplines me I can sense his love in it. He is always there waiting with open arms. I hear about God's love quite often, or I know about God's love intellectually, but like a child with his Mother and Father, God's incredible love is something I can't get enough of. When the message of God’s love manages to reach down into my heart, and not just my head, it is always life-giving. Fortunately for me, love is one of God's favorite subjects to talk to about.

Aren't we bombarded by messages and thoughts that say the opposite of God wanting us to be at home in his love? I sure am. Lately, when I am bombarded with negative thoughts, or feeling stressed out, I try to pray by imagining myself resting in God's loving arms. To rest in God’s arms and believe that he accepts me, and wants me to rest in his arms, I need to believe that he loves me. That he is there to hold me and to lovingly look into my eyes with a look that says, "I love you just the way you are." By the way: for me this thought or imaginative prayer has been a God initiated process. I won’t go into to it now, but by being open to God he has led me into his arms, and looking into his eyes that are full of a loving, confident, sometimes mischievous like gaze.

Through prayer I am learning that one of the ways God makes me feel at home is that God often expresses his love to me according to the way he has made me. For example, I am wired to love the outdoors and I can’t help but see his beauty and feel his presence in nature. Sometimes, I even sense God's presence and love in the weeds at the side of the road! Others aren't wired that way and may think I'm nuts because they are wired to sense God's love in their children, or working with the poor, or executing a successful business deal. The point is: when I start to become more aware of God's love, or actually take God up on his offer to "be at home" in his love, I am going to become more and more aware of his love in the simple, ordinary things in my life. By growing in my awareness of God’s loving presence, life becomes prayer and some days I am actually overwhelmed by all of God's expressions of love toward me.

Learning to pray teaches me to live in the present moment; the only place God's love can be experienced. If I am continually regretting the past, or worrying about the future, I will not be able to experience God's love in the way he invites me to. Learning to pray teaches me to let go of the past and trust God with the future and enjoy what is right in front of me. In Matthew 6 Jesus said not to worry and to take a look at the birds and the flowers to see an example of what it means to trust in God. Jesus' message is that God loves us and will take care of us, and not to worry. Be at home in his love - right now - and we will see his kingdom come!

I got to pray outside on the deck today.

2008-04-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

Whoa! What a long cold winter here in Vancouver, BC., but it was finally warm enough to pray outside on the deck today (see picture taken with my camera phone - that's the view from my deck). The last day that it was warm enough to do this was probably way back at the beginning of October, so it’s been 5 or 6 months since I have been able to sit in one of my favorite places to be with God.

Whatever helps me grow in my awareness of God is good and important for me to do and I realize we are all wired differently so we become aware of God in different ways. For a long time I didn’t feel comfortable with the thought, let alone actually doing it, that is connecting with God through nature. In my mind it had to be in church, or through scripture and that was it. Everything else was taboo.

I think connecting with God through nature began for me on a moonlit night cross country skiing just north of Squamish, BC. It was so quiet, and the stars were so bright and the mountains covered in snow illuminated by a full moon absolutely took my breath away. I remember thinking “there just has to be a God and he is absolutely brilliant and amazing for creating this scene that was beyond words."

Now, more and more, I sense God in the stillness of a tree, or the majesty of a mountain. It’s that sense of God that I think inspires some poets, painters, and musicians to try to communicate to us the love and glory of God through their art. It’s the indescribable Mystery that can only really be experienced in our hearts and through faith. We might see it and feel it as the sun cascades through the trees on a snowy day in the woods, and the glory of God, and what we are seeing, nearly knocks us over with its magnificent brilliance.

...I got to pray outside on the deck today.

Coldplay - At the Center of the Universe

2008-04-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

Final video in 8 song set - Fix You - From X&Y Album - Chris announces he hopes to be back in Canada in the future 'with great new songs and great new hair' :-)

Jacob and Lily / Ari Neufeld / Jess Janz

2008-03-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Listen to Ari: Click Here

Listen to Jacob and Lily: Click Here >Click on Myspace banner
Listen to Jess: Click Here
For tickets e-mail jlconcert@live.com

Listening as Spiritual Hospitality

2008-03-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

"To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.

"Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you."

Henry Nouwen

From 24:7 - US Student Cured of Cancer

2008-01-18T16:46:00.000-08:00

24-7 Prayer USA - January 15, 2008

"David Jolly, a student at Missouri Western State University, writes an incredible account of their five days of 24-7 prayer in November. Through faithful prayers gone up for a student named Gerrick who had been diagnosed with cancer, God responded powerfully. David shares with us, "Gerrick Ingram is 100% cancer free, without any surgery or radiation!"

"My name is David Jolly, and I am student at Missouri Western State University. Recently, I read the book Red Moon Rising, and I must say that it blew me away. Reading that book sparked the idea to have 24-7 prayer on our own campus. Our 24-hour prayer started November 5th and lasted for five days, and we prayed at the clock tower right in the middle of campus.

"The first night couldn't have gone better. It was a cool sixty degrees and the wind echoed with the songs of angels. God presence was definitely with us that night. At first, we were worried that the whole project would fall through because all the hours had not been filled up. But, after a visit to the boiler room in Kansas City, we realized that anything is possible with God - we were going to go through with it no matter what. Throughout the week, the hours that were not filled began to fill up like magic. People started to catch on to what God was doing. About halfway through the week, we had a nighttime worship session. It was freezing cold and we were all tired, but the minute that we started to sing, God's love met us and warmed us right up. It dawned on me at that moment that God was actually moving on this campus! We became a family that night.

"The rest of the week was fantastic, and it was funny to watch students pass by the clock tower and see someone praying. After a while, they figured out what was happening, and instead of being hostile, it seemed as though they wanted us to pray for them. We ended our week of prayer with another worship session that lasted until two in the morning. Isn't it great when you get lost in worship? I know that our lives will be changed dramatically from these encounters with God, and His power and mercy definitely rocked us.

"We were deeply impacted one story in particular. A student named Gerrick Ingram was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago. Gerrick is a man on fire for the Lord. Throughout the week of prayer, we spent hours praying for him, and he spent much more time praying for himself. Gerrick knows that God has a plan for his life, and he was determined not to leave this world yet. Just a week after our five days of 24-7 prayer, Gerrick told us all that 95% of his cancer was gone. But, it gets better! A week after that, he went back to the doctor for testing, and to everyone's surprise, there was no sign of cancer in his body. Gerrick Ingram is 100% cancer free, without any surgery or radiation! He was healed by the power of God! He is a walking testimony and living proof that Jesus does exist.

"24-7 prayer is powerful. Look how much God changed the lives of people in just five days on the small campus of Missouri Western. Imagine the possibilities if we all agreed in prayer as brothers and sisters in Christ, every day. Imagine it - and let's make it real! God bless you all."

Source: http://www.24-7prayer.com/cm/content/810

Naturally 7 Live in Paris Subway ! Full Clip

2008-01-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

Gotta love this:

2007-12-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

I am studying prayer in a course I am taking right now. I am also in a season of frustration and disappointment with myself, and both of these things (learning to pray and frustration), lead to striving in my relationship with God and in my prayer life.

I was out walking yesterday in a state of striving and frustration when these four words popped into my head “the peace of Christ.” I kind of had a Homer Simpson revelatory moment as all that that phrase means to me flooded over me, and gave me peace again.

It was a Homer Simpson moment because I have spoken on the peace of Christ, written about the peace of Christ, and meditated for months on Colossians 3 that talks about letting the peace of Christ rule my heart, and yet I had forgotten about all that God has done for me, and the peace he provides, which is like no other. To quote Homer, “Doh!!!” I know I am kind of making fun of this moment, and maybe I shouldn't, because it was actually really cleansing, and powerful in a very gentle Godly way. Thank God for God. As I walked along a busy suburban street, I believe he reminded me of the unconditional peace he provides.

For me, nothing compares to God's peace and all that He has done for me - all of us actually. I can do all kinds of spiritual gymnastics, and meditation prayer exercises, but why should I when peace, and so much more, is provided to me through simple faith in Jesus Christ? Some people may mock (I was watching the Colbert Report yesterday and he was mocking the Christian Republican Presidential Candidates for their “Christian” stance on some of the issues) but ultimately, I find incomparable solace in what God has done for me through Jesus Christ. He has given me peace for now, and for eternity. He has forgiven me for running away from his love, over, and over, and over again. He has provided me with freedom from the shit that I choose to engage in that robs me of His peace.

Colossians 3:15 starts with the word "Let" or "allow" or "dip into" the peace of Christ. Am I still going to pray? Yes. Continually, hopefully. Until prayer is like breathing, BUT, I need to approach God with peace, faith, love, and with the confidence that comes from all that he has done for me and provides. In the context of this verse, prayer is allowing - through faith and practice - HIS LOVE, HIS PEACE and HIS WORDS to rule my body, and the body of Christ.

learning to pray: Read Colossians 3:1-17 a few times, …maybe more. More in this in the days ahead.

Praying For Others

2007-12-11T14:03:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been moved to pray for people. Maybe it’s because of Christmas approaching and I am thinking about all the people in my life, or maybe it’s for some other reason. Don’t really know, don’t really care. The question is how do I pray for my friends and family? What do I pray?

This may be a little too formulaic for some people, but I like to follow an outline that I think Graham Cooke came up with. Graham’s written a booklet called “Crafted Prayer,” if you are interested http://www.brilliantbookhouse.com - – it’s brilliant (pun intended) Here's what I like to do:

1_ Think about the person you want to pray for. What are you thankful for? Thank God for them and the things that come to mind.
2_ Be silent. Be Still. Be open.
3_ What might Jesus be praying for them? Make this your prayer.
4_ What would you like to see the Holy Spirit do in their lives? How might he be praying for them? Make this your prayer.
5_ What would you like to see the Father do for them? How might he be praying for them? Make this your prayer.

learning to pray: who would you like to pray for right now? give the steps above a try.

Faith

2007-12-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

Richard Rohr in the video series "Crisis of Faith" concerning Jesus:

I think he is saying I am willing to bear the burden of my own reality wherever it leads me. Never quite sure that it is right and that's why it's called faith. And that's why Jesus said when the Son of Man returns, will he find any faith on earth? I think Jesus really had doubts. Religion is common, it's on every street corner. Faith is very rare.

Two Questions

2007-11-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

See if you recognize any difference in these two questions:

Question 1: What can I do to experience God?

Question 2: Where does God encounter me?

How do you feel about these questions?

Do you like one, or the other more?

What’s the difference?

Why does it matter? Does it matter?

Let me know what you think. Hit “Comments” below.

just pray

2007-11-19T12:49:00.000-08:00

If I was to describe a place on a trail that I regularly go for walks on where you can see horses in the field with the Fraser River and Coastal Mountains rising up behind it all, it’s going to have extra feeling and meaning to you because you have been there before. If you haven’t been there and seen this lovely pastoral scene you might just shrug your shoulders and say, “sounds nice,” or worse yet you might just get bored and walk away. The best way to appreciate something, learn something, or experience something is go and see it and experience it for yourself.

The best way to learn how to pray - is to pray. When it comes to prayer, God and experience are the best teachers. As we engage ourselves in prayer, he will take us ever deeper into our hearts, and into his heart. As we pray we'll learn more and more about ourselves and about God. He will gradually teach us to pray, and transform our hearts and minds in the process.

I was reading James Finley's "merton's palace of nowhere" right on the heals of reading St. John of the Cross' "Living Flame of Love" for a course I am taking, and it hit me that I will never really understand what these guys are writing about unless I pray. They are describing places on a map that I have never been to. The little I can understand comes from my own experience with the Lord in prayer. Quite frankly the rest makes no sense at all!

Finley says that Merton once said to him:

the Church and the world do not need people to talk about prayer, think about prayer, write about prayer, nearly as much as they need people to pray.*

learning to pray: pray

* "merton's palace of nowhere" by James Finley

Perfection in Prayer

2007-10-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Prayer is not about perfecting a technique. I have had a tendency to focus on technique, or get frustrated when times of prayer are cluttered with mental distractions, or dryness. The danger in naming a blog "learning to pray" is that it can give the impression that prayer is something to be perfected. Prayer is part of a dynamic relationship with a living God. God never changes, but we do, therefore the way we pray and communicate with God and the way he communicates with us is never the same.

I want it to be clear that learning to pray is part of the process of transformation, and the fruit of this process is experiencing a loving God and loving others.

I know a lot of Christians like order, and I hate to disappoint them, but in my experience with the things of Spirit, Spirit is unpredictable and messy. Learning to pray is not a linear process and for some people the unpredictability of learning to pray is going to drive them nuts. It's so important not to judge each individual prayer time. We need to stay committed to the unpredictable, unfolding, process of transformation and grace that takes place when one commits oneself to learning to pray.

The way we pray will probably change over time. The way we pray is slightly different for everyone. No two Prayers are exactly the same! Go through the Bible sometime and look at all the different ways people prayed. Daniel got down on his knees three times a day to pray. Peter prayed on his roof at lunch time. Jesus would disappear into the wilderness to pray. Ezekiel was told to lay on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days!!!

If you are in a good groove, stick with it, but always be open to Spirit when you pray. I have discovered that the way, or ways I pray are unfolding as I have tried to listen to Spirit and tried things from authors and people I know are mature in their faith. It takes a lot of trial and error and openness to Spirit. It takes confidence in a loving God, who, as one author said in regard to prayer, loves us most of all, perhaps, when we try and fail.

A Good Story

2007-08-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

One thing about the evangelical community is we love a good story. Heck, I love a good Kingdom story and hope to share a lot more of them here in this blog. I wish I could tell a lot of sensational stories week after week about how the heavens open up day after day and angels come and meet me as I pray, but it just wouldn’t be true.

The truth is I sit in my chair a couple of times day, and I struggle to stay present and open to God, and maybe for a few brief seconds, if I’m lucky, I know in my heart that I am in the loving presence of God. Most of the time not much happens as I pray that I am all that conscious of. The only thing I have to go on is my wife and my friends noticing that I have changed a little; that I seem to be a little more at peace, and a little happier. I have also noticed that I handle situations differently. Situations that caused me a lot of stress, or anger in the past, don’t seem to get to me as much as they used to, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Contemplative prayer has taught me to not buy the religious guilt trip any more. Whether it be over social justice, experiences of the Holy Spirit, reading my Bible more, evangelism, etc. Do miracles happen in my life, is it important to read my Bible, feed the poor, and tell others about the love of God? Yes, and in one way or the other I have been involved, or hope to be involved in all of these things in the future. Do I see evidence, and experience the Holy Spirit in my life? All the time, but I no longer cling to these experiences, and then tell other people they need to do this or that to be whole, or accepted by God. WE ARE ALL ACCEPTED AND LOVED BY GOD - PERIOD.

Prayer teaches me to let go of everything, including experience and religious guilt trips, and simply love God for who he is rather than what he can do for me. God loves me just as I am – weeds and wheat. Amazing kingdom stuff is going to happen, and is happening, but not because I force it to happen out of guilt and shame. It’s going to happen because God loves this broken world and he wants to share that love through me to whoever is open to it at any God ordained time.

I am “in the river” and good and bad stuff is happening all of the time, just like it did in the life of Jesus. Prayer teaches me how to handle it all more like him.

learning to pray: Let go of any religious guilt or shame.

How Great Thou Art

2007-08-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

learning to pray: On your next walk, hike, or boating trip take the words for the hymn "How Great Thou Art" with you. Here's a sample that spoke to me recently as I was standing at the base of mountain in the midst of a beautiful garden at the Cedar Springs Retreat Center in Sumas, Washington:

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

For the lyrics to the entire song go to: http://www.the-synergy.com/lyrics/howgrt.html Turn the volume up!!! (Just kidding).

Time Off

2007-07-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm taking the next week and half off to study for my real estate exam (please pray for me!), so I won't be submitting anything new for a while. If you have anything to contribute in the meantime that has to do with learning to pray, please make a comment below. Take Care!

Let your love, GOD, shape my life with salvation, exactly as you promised. Psalm 119:41

Your love, GOD, fills the earth!
Train me to live by your counsel. Psalm 119:64

Truth from your mouth means more to me
than striking it rich in a gold mine. Psalm 119:72