Set A Spell

 

On our back porch, two old rockers sit waiting to be occupied, paint peeling and woven seats worn out.  They once belonged to my husband Bill’s great-grandparents.  Just the sight of these rockers carry with them decades upon decades of memories.  

From time before eternity, the rockers sat side by side on his grandmother’s screened porch, always calling to be occupied.  Because on hot steamy southern Alabama evenings after the work of the day ceased, babies still needed to be rocked and stories needed to be told. 

But one of the fondest memories we have was just in the act of rocking side by side with someone, just being together, accompanied only by the evening chorus of crickets and the creak of those old chairs on her ancient porch, generation after generation.

No words necessary.

We think of prayer as lists of requests, coming before Him with our hearts burdened. Prayers indeed are lifted up, but all-too-often stuffed in the cracks of our days, like a hurried cell call, quick before my phone runs out of juice.

And we are the ones who miss out.

God pats the rocker and says, “Come on.  Sit with Me.”  Or as they would say down there on Oma’s porch, “Set a spell.”  Not with a list, but just to sit.  And as we do, we listen.

We discover that the silence is not God’s absence, but His deeper Presence.  He is here after all.  It is not our waiting on Him, but God waiting on us.  We can trust Him with what is going on.   Not with a posture of “What is God teaching me through this?” but, “What is God revealing?”  Two very different questions.

How do we pray differently in those times of rocking side by side?   Listening is a missing element in our conversation. 

The more we sit with Him, the more we listen, and the more we become aware.  I passed another runner the other day.  I lifted a hand in greeting and said good morning.  She kept on running without any recognition of my words or even my being a few feet away from her.  Because with ear buds on, she simply couldn’t hear me. 

Are we blocking out God’s voice?  Are we even listening? 

Are we dwelling in worry…..or rocking with Him?  Not just bringing our concerns to Him, but leaving them there and giving God the elbow room to work.

What do we miss because we don’t set a spell with God?  Influential writer and theologian Henri Nouwen notes:  “…He is the dwelling place where we come to know the true order of things.  Instead of saying, “Nothing matters anymore, since I know that God exists,” the converted person says:  “All is now clothed in divine light and, therefore, nothing can be unimportant.” 

And when we sit a while with Jesus, we hear something new, our hearts are tweaked, and we pray differently.  We catch a glimpse of something new when we listen to God.  Every bit is clothed in His divine light and everything is significant.

When we sit with Him in silence, everything changes.  We don’t just pray differently.  We listen.  We know that He is God.

 

For God alone,

            O my soul,

wait in silence,

for my hope is from Him.

He only

      is my rock and my salvation,

      my fortress.

I will not be shaken.

On God

     rests my salvation and my glory,

                    my mighty rock,

                    my refuge is God.

Trust in Him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us. 

                                   Selah.

                     Psalm 62. 5-8

 

Selah.

       Set a spell in these words.

       Set a spell with Me.

How do you stand the hills?

About twenty years ago now when I first started to run, I pushed myself to my absolute limit.  I ran to the end of the block.

And then, I walked a block.

I kept up that pattern for an endless number of weeks, one block at a time, one day at a time, and then very gradually, I ran a little more.  One of our daughters set the timer on my watch to buzz every two minutes.  Run two minutes, walk two minutes.  Repeat.  I was not sure that it qualified as "running," but it was a huge first step for me.

I pulled on my running clothes first thing in the morning to get ahead of any flimsy excuses.  I walked our youngest daughter to the corner to catch the bus.  As soon as the bus passed out of sight around the corner, I began running. In the deepest part of those cold Ohio winters, it was still  barely light, and early enough that there was not much traffic. I liked the anonymity of that time.  There was no one around to question what exactly I was doing.

As my route became a little longer, one more block, one extra telephone pole, and then after many long weeks, I veered out of our immediate neighborhood and over to a nearby park.  Eventually, I followed the sidewalk around to the stoplight a mile away.  My turnaround point was the drive-through at McDonald's.

Outside our neighborhood, I encountered the dreaded hills, when often it felt like I was running in place and not moving at all.  At the time, one of our daughters was running cross country for her high school team.  "How do you stand the hills?" I asked her.  "What is your trick?"

"It all depends on what you are thinking about," she laughed.  "Sometimes I don't even notice them."

We all have steep hills in our lives
                in one form or another.
 How do we face them?

It all depends on what we are thinking about.
It all depends on what we are praying about.

Yet
    I will rejoice in the LORD,
    I will joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
He makes my feet like hind's feet,
He makes me tread upon my high places.

                      Habakkuk 3. 18-19

The word "tread" is commonly defined as "to walk," but it can also be translated "to dance."  I like the vision of dancing upon the steep places in my life.

Don't just slog uphill,
                            dance upon it.

It's not just how we view it,
     but the reality of His Presence even in the hard stuff. 

What is His way in this steep situation?
What is His way in this difficult task or relationship?

Teach me Your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path...

                            Psalm 27. 11
 

Lead me on the hills, O LORD.








  

Both Sides of the Same Equation

 

There is no end to what we can pray about.  But there also no end to the praise. 

So often we share our needs and prayer requests, but then how often do we follow up by telling about how God has provided?  Not just that He has revealed an answer, a path or a solution, but how we have witnessed His Presence in what He has done.  God most likely has something completely different up His sleeve.

Prayer and praise are both sides of the same equation.  When we come before God in prayer, God enlarges our universe.  He changes our hearts, our vision, our embracing of the extraordinary, the unexpected, and even the familiar.  “I never saw that before.”  “I didn’t even think about praying for that. “

And when we praise, how differently we experience not just the outcome but the journey.  Do we need a little lesson in saying “thank You?”   Praise and thankfulness are not about making God feel good.  But our praise verbally expresses how we see God.  And how we love God for Himself, not just for what He does.

No matter the actual need, in praying and praising, our response is altered radically.  Do we make that connection? God changes our appetites, even for what we pray.  Our trajectory in prayer explores and discovers His unexpected ways and redeeming far beyond our lifetimes.  Our course of action –and how we pray—takes yet another direction on sacred ground we have not yet traveled.

And in praising Him, we find ourselves in a far different place, full of wonder and trusting Him even more.  We realize, “I’ve seen too much to question God in this.”

His glory does not just become visible by our verbal praise, but gets all over everything.  Our praise is focused on the LORD.  But those around us are listening to know that God is real and to be encouraged by His steadfast love, even for them.  It is not just “look what the LORD has done!” Because what the LORD is actually doing cannot be wrapped up in a neat little package and tied with a bow.  His purposes cannot be separated into timed instances, but are cast in great magnificence across the universe.

Our praise is summed up in a simple awe-filled “Wow.”  And yet, we have only seen but a glimpse of what He is up to.

Our prayers show others a whole new dimension to life:  We are not helpless.  We are not alone.  We can pray about that.  Our praises do not tell others that help is on the way. But no, God is already here.   And for them to realize that God loves them too.  When we praise God before others, it is not boasting about ourselves but reveals both His glory and the hope on which we can stake our lives.

For what do we pray?  For what can we praise? 

I will bless the LORD at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

                                       Psalm 34. 1

 

2023 Manifesto: A primer for change and how to get there

A friend asked a group of us a yes or no question yesterday:  Are you making resolutions for this new year?  I felt like it was the wrong question.

What different choices am I making?  What changes in my heart do I want to see?  And how do I get there?

If I want things to be different, something has to change.  And that would be me.

Being faithful to God does not just suddenly arrive on the doorstep like a package from FedEx, but intentionally walking with God through whatever He places on our paths and praying our way through.
 

Here are a few little things I have been pondering for the new year --practical steps to take, not resolutions to make and break -- incremental decisions to adopt on a daily basis.  Not downloading all at once, but how I choose to respond in this situation.  Pick one and carry it into the day..  It is not like suddenly writing at an entire 800-page book, way too overwhelming, but a new word, a single sentence, built slowly into a paragraph. In choices layer upon layer, God welcomes us to enter His grander narrative and invites us into what He is already doing.  We choose to walk with Him.  We are not alone in this.  The LORD lives...(Psalm 18. 46)  And that changes everything.

Try something hard, something new, and something I have to work at.

 Do not be afraid of sweating, stretching, or getting my feet muddy.

Take a hike on an unfamiliar trail.

Love others well, even those I don't know, are hard to like, or who don’t see me.

Find a connection, if only at first the most delicate filament.

Live both sides of forgiveness.

Let God hold all things together.

Read God’s Word daily.  Dwell in it.  Expect it to change me.

Serve a bigger slice of grace instead of turning away.

Pray with an open heart, listening ears, and shoes tied with double knots.

Pick up twigs when that is all I can do.
Do what is right, gracious and kind to give others the freedom to do the same.

Take out the trash in more than one dimension.

Make the bed first thing in the morning. Click here to find out why.

Be kind, learn names, bake cookies.

Use my phone as a tool, not a distraction.

Know when to walk into unknown territory, run for my life, or stand in the gap.

Be a 2 a.m. friend.

Avoid pride, mirrors and feeling noble.

Remember humility is not thinking less of myself, but less about myself. (C. S. Lewis)

Make prayer my first response, not my last resort.

Allow others to go first.  “After you.”

Wear the red scarf of courage.

Solve a complicated puzzle by praying with a different heart.

Do what makes no sense at all, if not for God.

Bear fruit in barren places.

Let God change the landscape.

Embrace the awe of the wilderness and be unafraid of it.

Dwell in contentment, not complacency.

Don’t slouch.

Make sure I haven't locked the door of opportunity from the inside.

Practice the unexpected.  Surprise others with grace.

Dress in layers, grace underneath, love over all.

Prepare for the cold. Train for the race. Pack extra socks.

Realize that in the gaps and the cracks, the Spirit rushes in.

Don’t call it exercise.

Who encouraged me?  Be that to others.

Repack it and see if it fits now.

Find a network of saints.  “I have many people in that city.” (Acts 18. 9)

Smile, hold out my hand first and introduce myself.

Get lost and discover a network of unexplored trails already here.

Bring the name of Jesus there. (Henri Nouwen)

Read, write, pray, and praise every day.

Go MAD:  Make A Difference.

Engrave faithfulness into the ordinary.

Seek to bless the LORD and be a blessing to others.

Write the name of the LORD all over this day.

Strive for resurrection here. "Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21. 5)

Recognize God in this.

Praise well with others.

“Trust Me in this.”

Realize what I can't fix, but I can always pray.

Take one little step in this.  And only then, the next.

Grasp that mercy always triumphs over judgement. (James 2. 13)

Always seek out the reconciliation road. 

Claim "Not I, but Christ in me." (Galatians 2. 20)

Know assuredly, even the little irritations, dead ends, accidents, speed bumps, huge mistakes, impossible people, glitches and cancelled plans, that nasty cold, a blizzard or boulder that appears to block the way, even all these weave profoundly the eternal purposes of God.

Plant trees that someone else will enjoy.

Stake my life on His promise, "Do not fear. I am with you." 

And first, to pray.

Sometimes A Glimpse

 Sometimes a glimpse emerges that the unseen and the promises of God are after all really real:  "Do not fear.  I am with you."

This week, the entire nation was upended by the impetus to pray in the shocking crisis of 24 year old football player Damar Hamlin.  This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal yesterday morning, January 6: How Damar Hamlin Drove a Nation to Pray.

Well worth a read.  Well worth realizing God is at work in each of us.  Damar is getting better.  But it is not all about Damar, but just a glimpse that God cares about us too.

People prayed.  A lot of people prayed very publicly.  It was as if all the excuses crumbled and the myriad of ways that people explain God away very suddenly didn't make sense anymore.  People were drawn to pray.  

I called on Your name, O LORD,

     from the depths of the pit;

You heard my plea,

    "Do not close Your ear to my cry for Help!"

You came near when I called on you;

    You said, "Do not fear!"

You have taken up my cause, O LORD;

            You have redeemed my life.

                      Lamentations 3. 55-58

As author Wendell Berry says in his novel Jayber Crow:  "...the world, which seemed all of a sudden to have got a lot bigger." 

Sometimes we just need to cry out "Help!"  Sometimes we need to realize that we need help.  Praying allows us to grasp the supernatural, not just in the extraordinary, but acknowledge God's Presence and His faithfulness in the common and ordinary, perhaps even more to witness it in the familiar.  

Sometimes a glimpse to know He is still here.

One Resolution To Rule Them All

No matter what we face today or in this new year, may we be reminded:  but first, to pray.  And that changes everything.  First response, not last resort.

If we want to pray more,

       we need to pray more.

Prayer always matters.  It matters a lot.  Far more than we will ever know.   And sometimes in what we see as a witness before our eyes.  God brings something different to the situation and to us.  And that would be His Presence.

If we keep just one resolution in this year, may we honor God and change the world by praying more.

Praying, praising, pouring out.  Not out of a self-imposed resolution, obligation, or even habit, but that we can’t help but to pray.  Not should or gonna, but seizing this profound and present moment to come before Him.

A resolution is not literally defined as a fierce determination to do something, nor an achievement, nor discovering a solution, nor making an impossible list.  Because in Latin, resolution means to loosen.

May we let loose our prayers into His Presence.

…for to You

             do I pray.

                                 Psalm 5. 2

Even more this year.

Even more today.