The God of Small Things

Tags

Christianity, prayer, spirituality

I have been reading the book, The God of small things.  The story of a Christian family struggling to find it’s way through life in India, the story touches on the secrets that keep families bound in a cycle of dysfunction.  This family has secrets, from alcoholism  and affairs, to physical and sexual abuse, to the tragic death of a visiting cousin.  At one point Rahal one of the twins observes that her family only talks about the small things and never acknowledges any of the secrets that keep them trapped.  What a  shame, because talking about the big things could prove to be very healing.

When she  thinks of God, she thinks of him as the God of small things.  That is even a greater shame, and yet I believe the place where so many families and congregations around the world are in their relationship with God.  God wants to make a big difference in our lives, but in order for him to do so we need to first talk with him about the big  things.  What hurts us deeply?  What are our deepest desires?  What gives us great joy?  God desires to be involved in all aspects of our lives, he desires to be  the God of the big things as well as the small things.  Let’s take that risk, and spend time with God discussing more than the small things and see where  that leads.  

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restoration

Tags

Christianity, prayer

This weekend I had the opportunity to get away to visit friends.  It was a quick visit (late afternoon to noon the next day) but we enjoyed an excellent dinner, played cards, talked each other’s ears off and just enjoyed being together.  As I drove home I reflected on how rested and relaxed I felt, as if I had enjoyed a mini-vacation.  I remembered that I felt that way when I spent two days with these same friends at Christmas.  I resolved that our visits were too few and too far between and that I needed to connect with them, or other good friends for activities more often.

Then I started to reflect on the times when I had felt that same sense of restoration as a result of having spent time in prayer.

The first time I noticed that same surge of energy and sense of recovery from the burdens of life was during a retreat on Benedictine Prayer.  We all came together in the chapel for a half hour of silent prayer. It was the end of the day and I dragged myself, tired and wanting to go to bed, and perhaps a touch grumpy to the chapel.  We settled in and entered into the silence.  When the gong sounded at the end of the prayer time, I felt re-energized, re-newed, and re-invigorated.  There have been times since when time spent with God gave me that same renewal of spirit:  times when I chanted or sang for a concentrated period of time, times when I entered fully into centering prayer, or deep theological reflection.  I realize that I need to resolve to spend that kind of quality time with God more often.  I have to quit tackling life on my own strength and out of my exhaustion and start spending more time with God, so that I feel rested, restored and as if I have had a mini-vacation.  I am certain that this will bear results and make me far more productive in my work and private life.  The big question of course is will I?  I am good at making resolutions, and not as successful at keeping them.  But if I don’t, then I know I will lose out on a blessing beyond comparison.

This is the promise from God’s word, found in the 23rd Psalm.  May it be for me and may it be for you.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 
   He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; 
   he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
   for his name’s sake. 

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
   I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
   your rod and your staff—
   they comfort me. 

You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
   my whole life long.

the joy of praying for others–family

I have been reading a series of articles titled  the joy of praying for others, and am discovering some new insights on the discipline of intercessory prayer.  We all have those people for whom we pray regularly, family and good friends, but these articles expand that to members of your congregation, to people in other nations and even those nations themselves.

While I regularly pray for all these issues during the prayers of intercession during Sunday worship, and occasionally while listening to the evening news, I don’t do so on a regular basis.  This area requires some thought and meditation as I consider my calling to pray for God’s world and God’s people.

But first I begin with those people who fill my heart to overflowing…. my daughter, her husband and the two most handsome grandsons in the world.  Loving them is easy, praying for them is not always as easy as my heart often overflows and the words are beyond me.  When I have those moments I turn to this prayer which circulated on the internet a while back, and  the language though cumbersome, does sum up  the kind of relationship I pray each of them will have with our God.

Grant to my children and grandchildren your grace, most merciful Jesus, that it may be with them and in them now and to the end of their lives.  Grant that they may always desire and will those things that are acceptable and most dear to you.  Let your will be theirs, and let their will ever follow yours and agree perfectly with it.  Let their will be in complete unison with your will.  In Jesus name, Amen.

defining prayer

I thought that it  would be helpful to begin by discovering what, for me, prayer is.  The best definition I have  found for prayer comes from the notes in the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible.

Interactive conversation with God about what we and God are thinking and doing together.

1.  It is interactive conversation.  Too often in my struggle with prayer it is merely a monologue, in which I speak, demand, whine and cry and God listens. But conversation is a two person process, in which I need to both  talk and listen.  Making the  time for silence and stopping to check if I am hearing God correctly is  the challenge  for me as I move forward in my prayer life.

2. Prayer is about what God thinks and wants done and about how I am a willing participant in his plan.  Instead of trying to convince God to give me what I want, I need to spend time learning what God is thinking and asking what God wants me to  do.

The prayer of  Thomas More, when adopted helps me to keep these points in mind….

The things good Lord we pray for, give us the grace to labour for.

 

It’s time to start….

“Life’s not about expecting,
hoping and wishing.
It’s about doing,
being and becoming.
It’s about the choices you’ve just made,
and the choices you’re about to make,
it’s about the things you choose to say – today.
It’s about what you’re gonna do after you finish reading this. “
~Mike Dooley

I have been thinking about starting a blog on my striving and trying to have a rich and fulfilling prayer life for a long time.  This past year I have spent a lot of time preaching on prayer and it is –when I am consistent with it– a source of joy and strength.  This past weekend I led a workshop on prayer and how it is a key factor in being a “blessed church.”.  The comments on how difficult it is to pray, inspired me once again to start a blog outlining my struggles.  It isn’t easy for any of us.

Then today I read the above quote from Mike  Dooley on a friend’s blog and I realized the time of thinking was past, and the time for action had come.

Come journey with me as I try to pray and may we discover God’s grace together.