Prayer and the Pray-er (Prayer #2)

A friend told me this morning that he'd been praying for me. I was touched by his generosity with his time, and encouraged that someone was talking to God about me (in a positive way!)

Which brought to mind the question of what our prayers accomplish. Again, as we talk about prayer we're discussing how we talk to a Being who already knows more about the situation than we can tell him, about a friend or family member he already loves infinitely more than we do. So as we pray, are we convincing God to do something good for this person for whom Jesus has already died?

My best understanding, as of May 27 2008, is that prayer for the good of someone else does several important things:
--Reminds me to love that person, since God already does
--Keeps that person in my mind during the week, rather than simply saying that I care about him or her, but forgetting all about their needs later
--Allows God to bring to mind things that I can do for that person, over and above prayer
--Encourages that person, when he or she learns how many people are praying and concerned about their needs
--Shows me my un-Christlike attitudes about another person.

There are probably more, but those are pretty powerful already.

When I actually wrestle with God in prayer over the needs of a friend or family member, I have to work through some of those parts of my thinking that aren't like God. Praying through those things is like taking the flour and other ingredients from the cabinet and working them slowly into the dough that will be good bread; in this case, finding places in the Bible that help me see the mind of God, especially as revealed through his son Jesus, and working that into my thinking to replace the selfish ideas and motivations.

Jesus said "the Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." (Matthew 13:33). That works on the macro-level (that is, all through the world) and the micro-level (all through me).

Good prayer, like good bread, takes work. But it's worth every second. Why don't you give it a try? And let me know how it comes out.

What's the Point? (Prayer, #1)

Prayer. Sometimes it sounds like a chore, sometimes an entrance requirement for something or other. Some of the prayer I hear sounds like people are using it as a weapon against something, or a way to beat up others who don't agree with their ideas, or a way to impress others with their spiritual depth.

If you believe in this God who is all-knowing anyway, why bother praying? I mean, after all, if he knows what you're gonna say before you say it, what's the point? You could be boring God by saying it all. You could be irritating him by letting your thoughts wander, or by using wrong grammar or being disorganized in your request list. What if he only listens to glib talkers, or the deeply introspective, or the dramatic? Or those who haven't sinned yet today?

Does God have an emotional need to hear from us, or maybe he forgets we're still here unless we make noise? I don't think so. Then prayer is more for us than for God. He sees us wherever we are. We're the ones who don't see him. He doesn't need us, but we sure 'nuff need him.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, got to talk to God all the time, face to face. Then of course they decided they'd grown up and didn't need him anymore, and the whole human experience went downhill, fast, from there.

I think one of the important parts of prayer -- and there are many -- is to be reminded that I don't know it all. Psalm 25:4-5 says it this way: "Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me."

Prayer gives me a chance to admit that there's a lot of stuff in life -- okay, all of it -- that I can't do, and need his help to accomplish. For that matter, even to know which thing to be working on, let alone how to do it. To admit to God, not just to myself, that I need him and always will. (Now, he already knows that, but it helps me to face the fact that I do.)

For a lot more perspectives on prayer, I recommend Philip Yancey's excellent book Prayer: Does it Make any Difference?

What is it that you need to admit to God today? He know you're there, he knows what's on your mind, and he's listening. What's more, he loves hearing from you!

Something you can't earn

Grace is called "undeserved pardon" in some circles. That's part of it, to be sure. But there's more.

Grace -- which comes from absolute love -- is the foundation for the way an eternal, limitless, perfect, holy God interacts with a physical, limited and very much imperfect humanity (that would be you and me both). Hey, God is perfect and we aren't, so how else would he deal with us, than by grace? Would you let the Three Stooges into your house??

I'll give you an illustration from my own life (I know, you didn't ask for one, but it's here anyway). Years ago, I was divorced. It wasn't pretty. Divorce never is. I figured, well, that's it for me, God won't ever let me be married again. Or it will be five or ten years of being single, and I'll finally find someone I can be moderately happy with.

Wrong on both counts. God is gracious, not vengeful. It was only two years, and I met somebody that has absolutely taken my breath away, over and over, as I see God's hand in our relationship. I'm happier than I ever thought possible, and more fulfilled in this marriage than I thought marriage could be. It's still work -- it always is -- but it's amazing.

Grace is something we can't earn and couldn't qualify for in a million years. It's a gift, that's all. And I'm here as one of the prime examples of God's graciousness. Like Paul said: 'This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.'

I'm glad it's grace not works. How about you?

Why do it?

A few years ago, when I was first caught up in a total revolution of my concept of God and what he meant in my life (including whether I must capitalize "he" in writing about God) I fell in love with something called 'worship'. Now, I know I've been worshipping God all my life, but the topic of worship -- what it is, why do it, how, and so forth -- became a focus for me and some of my friends.

Others of my friends completely didn't get the concept of worship, even tho it's written up in the Bible. I mean, looking at it from a human viewpoint, what kind of personality needs to be praised and complimented all the time? If one of my friends acted that way, I'd have to have a long talk with him or her about insecurity and peace. Do you really want to have a person like that around you? I don't! And how about those megalomaniac rulers in this world, who demand their followers tell them how great they are? If God is like that, and wants to burn me when I don't give him enough of it, I don't think I want anything to do with him. Would you?? But if God is love, why does he need all this praise stuff?

C.S. Lewis, one of the clearest writers in English on Christianity in the 20th century, asked that question too. He wrote a book, Reflections on the Psalms, and wondered aloud why so many times the scripture says something like this, in Psalm 8:1 -- "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Lewis's conclusion in that book was, worshipping God is simply to recognize who he is and what he's like, and respond accordingly. "To worship God is merely to be awake, to have entered the real world," he writes. So to be truly paying attention to reality, seeing how great God really is, would that help us worship?

Two metaphors that help this make sense to me: one is my memory of walking into a room at a museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma where a huge painting was hanging, depicting a morning in the Sierra Nevada mountains, with a lake and deer in the foreground. It filled my whole field of view, and just took my breath away. I was stunned by its beauty. The other idea is what it means to show appreciation to someone (I think first of my wife, The Amazing Joanne) for her traits or a gift she's given me.

If we apply those ideas to God, what do we have? Being bowled over by how great he really is, when we get a glimpse of that; and being filled with appreciation and excitement about all he has done for us; those are some of the ways we can be aware of reasons to worship him.

Who he is, and what he's done; both of them knock me over every time I really hone in on them. It makes me want to dance, sing, shout, kneel, bow, reach up to him in love, and a lot of other actions and thoughts.

How about you? Have you had a glimpse of him lately? How did you react?

Breakfast with the ducks

God and I had breakfast this AM with some ducks out on Ralston Creek, not too far from my apartment. Bright sunshine, peaceful scenery, new grass and flowers -- beauty all around.

Some ppl don't get it that God permeates this creation. Sometimes I get busy trying to get from A to B and forget to notice what he's doing out there. But the Bible, his word, says he is actively involved in keeping it going. In fact, it's not just "God" in the generic sense, but Jesus himself, who once walked this earth and still is intimately involved in it:

"Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven." (Hebrews 1:1-3)

So, what this is saying is, the one who created the whole universe billions of years ago, came to the earth and brought the whole thing -- including the people -- back from our disastrous self-will detour, and is asking us to walk alongside him as we learn to take care of the place and each other. And he still holds it all together himself, because he likes it that way. He's still involved and he's not going away.

Even if we get busy and don't notice him. Or don't believe in him. Or don't want to go along for the trip.

But he's busy, continuing the work he sent his Son to do. He's got projects going on all over the world -- and all over Arvada, or wherever you live. He asks us to be involved with what he's doing, showing his love toward his children everywhere we meet them -- whether they're 'wayward' or not.

Join me and God for breakfast sometime? He'll refresh you with real food and real energy for the job he's about to give you.

Real Food

The Lovely Joanne is out of town this week on a business trip, and I must cook for myself, so I'm looking in the refrigerator for what there might be to eat. Since we cooked several large meals last week, there were leftovers that I've been eating to save time cooking. Of course, I have to sniff the food first, since some of it has been around awhile and might be spoiled.

Jesus didn't have a refrigerator, so he understood about food spoilage. In fact, he said at one point, "Don't work for the food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." (John 6:27, if you want to look it up.) So, was he talking ptomaine, or pushing antioxidants, or what?

Well, Jesus had just fed 5,000 people with a few biscuits and some pickled sardines. That must have wowed the crowd, because they followed him around the next couple of days hoping he'd repeat the feat. They wouldn't listen to what he said about eternity, but they did want him to start up the manna-from-heaven miracle again, so they wouldn't have to work for food any more.

So he tells them not to spin their wheels working for physical food, because it will just spoil anyway. Why was that? Could have been several reasons, I suppose. But basically, he was working on people to stop looking at merely physical things and begin looking at the spiritual. He did that a lot, because people back then were, in the main, looking for just the physical and didn't realize there was more to life.

Oooooops, I do that sometimes too, and so do lots of people I know. Maybe even you...well, okay, not you, but somebody you know. Really well...

So, is there a cure for not seeing the spiritual? I think it's the same way you get to Carnegie Hall -- practice, man, practice. But it takes spiritual eyes; you have to ask God to help you see the big lesson behind the little one in front of you, the spiritual thing that the physical thing stands for. He's created a lot of physical stuff that gives us windows into the spiritual world; so why not use them to understand him better?

'scuse me, there's something boiling over on the stove....

Light of the World

Tonight is the spring equinox: the day and night are of equal length, and as the sun sets, the full moon rises. Lots of cool astronomics all at once.

On a night like this, but at or near the fall equinox, Jesus stood in the temple courtyard and said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Now, the Jews of that time had said that light was a symbol of the presence of God. They had created some large menorahs (candlesticks, or lamps for use with olive oil, with seven branches) that they kept lit during the Feast of Tabernacles to illustrate that symbol. And then here came this upstart teacher from Galilee saying that he was the one to whom that symbol pointed. He said that he was the presence of God in the world -- not the light from the menorahs, not the light from the full moon that combined with the oil lamps to cast a brilliant light over Jerusalem.

They didn't like it. That was just one more excuse for them to call him a false prophet.

The next week, the light from those lamps was extinguished. Jesus still shone. He still does.

Can you see where you're going? Or do you need his light in you?