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.

Looking Through A Rear View Mirror: Books 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much of what we do is not measurable.  I ran x number of miles in this past year.  But that number does not reflect my actual experience – the struggles up the hills, the feel of a cool breeze when I come over the ridge, the awe of a sanctuary of gravity-defying trees, and even the jarring memory of tripping, falling and hitting the gravel, more than once.  The numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Looking back through the titles of books that I read in 2022 also does not paint the full narrative of what I have felt, the tales that I read, the wonder of heroes both great and small, and indeed, both real and imagined.  The reader in me rejoices.   “Of the making many books there is no end…” (Ecclesiastes 12. 12) 

But in the midst of all those words, I always read with a pen in hand and a colander.  Even if I shake out one good quote or story from a book, or it inspires me to do something different, or to simply do something, or encourages me to write down bits of my own story, it was well worth the read.

Every book we read enlarges us in some way or another.  This chronicle covers the books that I completed in 2022.  There were two, not quite finished, that will have to wait for this year’s list.  And there were many that I returned to the library unread or half-read when I realized that the content was not what I expected or cared to have written in indelible ink in my thoughts. No shame in that at all.

This list of books encompasses fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, theology, and those written for young adults.  In some ways for me, those genres blended into one another.  Fiction seemed so real.  Nonfiction told stories of incredible people, mostly unknown, who lived through amazing sufferings, narrow squeaks, and quiet triumphs.  Theology helped me along in my understanding of God.  And young adult novels unfolded hope for the now and the next in many hidden dimensions. 

It’s not a perfect list of books, but ones that nourished my mind and heart this past year.  It makes me excited to discover even more in 2023 – new books, old books, ratty paperbacks, stories my grandchildren urge me to read, those I read so many decades ago and forgot about, those that translate into words what I can finally understand.  And books that urge me to tell a friend, “You have to read this.”

 

1.     Born A Crime:  Stories From A South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (2016)

2.     The Deep Places:  A Memoir of Illness and Discovery by Ross Douthat (2021)

3.     Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl (1972)

4.     The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron (1998)

5.     Think Again:  The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant (2021)

6.     Northwind by Gary Paulsen (2022)

7.     Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain (1896)

8.     These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (2021)

9.     Beyond Words by John Prine (2017)

10.  The Last Slave Ship:  The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines (2022)

11.  Count It All Joy:  The Ridiculous Paradox of Suffering by John M. Perkins (2021)

12.  Where The Light Fell by Philip Yancey (2021)

13.  The Lyrics:  1956 to the Present A- K by Paul McCartney (2021)

14.  The Fingerprint of God:  Reflections on Love and Its Practice by Will Dickerson (2021)

15.  The Yosemite by John Muir (1912)

16.  He Saw That It was Good:  Reimaging Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World by Sho Baraka (2021)

17.  The Unbroken Thread:  Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari (2021)

18.  2084:  Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John C. Lennox (2020)

19.  A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser (2022)

20.  This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley (2022)

21.  This Is Happiness by Niall Williams (2019)

22.  Every Deep-Drawn Breath:  A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU  by Wes Ely MD (2021)

23.  Travels With Charley:  In Search of America by John Steinbeck (1962)

24.  The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World by Andy Crouch (2022)

25.   Closer to the Ground:  An outdoor family’s year on the water, in the woods and at the table by Dylan Tomine (2012)

26.  The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (2022)

27.  What We Wish Were True:  Reflections on Nurturing Life and Facing Death by Tallu Schuyler Quinn (2022)

28.  Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen:  How God Redeems Regret, Hurt and Fear by Scott Sauls (2022)

29.  The Pearl by John Steinbeck (1945)

30.  The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (1937)

31.  Jesus Through the Eyes of Women:  How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord by Rebecca McLaughlin (2022)

32.  Journey by Patricia MacLachlan (1991)

33.  World on Fire:  Walking in the Wisdom of Christ when Everyone’s Fighting about Everything by Hannah Anderson et. al. (2021)

34.  The Secular Creed:  Engaging Five Contemporary Claims by Rebecca McLaughlin (2021)

35.  Letters to Malcolm:  Chiefly on Prayer  by C. S. Lewis (1963)

36.  Holding On To Hope: A pathway through suffering to the heart of God by Nancy Guthrie (2002)

37.  A Woman of No Importance:  The untold story of the American spy who helped win World War 2 by Sonia Purnell (2019)

38.  Lord, Teach Us to Pray by Andrew Murray (1896)

39.  The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy (2019)

40.  How To Inhabit Time:  Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now by James K. A. Smith (2022)

41.  Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)

42.  From Strength to Strength:  Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks (2022)

43.  Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed:  The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There by Philip Hallie (1979)

44.  Forgive:  Why Should I and How Can I?  by Timothy Keller (2022)

45.  Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (2000)

46.  Will the Circle Be Unbroken? A memoir of learning to believe you’re gonna be okay by Sean Dietrich (2020)

47.  Gentle and Lowly:  The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund (2020)

48.  The Weary World Rejoices:  Daily Devotions for Advent by Melissa Kruger, editor (2022)

49.  The Correspondence of Flannery O’Connor and the Brainard Cheneys, edited by C. Ralph Stephens (1986)

50.  One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty (1983)

51.  The Bible