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Posts Tagged ‘Prayer’

Leave Room at the Table

Posted in Prayer, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , on August 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

In preparation for this week’s post, I’ve been pondering what Luke 14: 1 and Luke 14: 7-14 have to say to me. Luke 14:1 says that Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of a well-known religious leader, and while he was there, everyone else invited was “observing him carefully.”

Luke 14:1 reminds me to strive to focus on what God is asking me to do and to look to others in relation to what situations are calling me to do. It reminds me of that warning against “notic[ing] the splinter in [my] brother’s eye but . . .not perceiv[ing] the plank in [my] own” (Matt. 7:3). Second, it a reminder to be careful about drawing conclusions about people based on their appearance and what they do. My conclusions may not be accurate. Third, it reminds me that I need to ask for God’s help to make my heart and soul match the positive image I would like to project. Fourth, it reminds me to ask God for the grace not to be concerned about appearances for reasons that don’t demonstrate a love for myself, for others, and for God that reflects God’s love for us..

Luke 14:7-14 gives me, you, and the other guests invited to the dinner a parable about not presenting ourselves as if we deserve the highest honors. If we present ourselves this way, the parable tells us, we are likely to be perceived as arrogant and presumptuous. On the other hand, if we honor others, we’ll be perceived as humble and will be honored by others.

Pride makes a social circle small. In its most extreme form, pride would make room for only one person—the one consumed with pride—while humility widens a social circle, making room for those who may be different than we are and those whom we would have otherwise ignored or forgotten.

If I’m humble, I recognize that I need God and the gifts God has given me in creation and in other people, and I don’t take those gifts for granted. I recognize that I can do nothing on my own, without God, God’s other children, and God’s creation. This is not to say that I am nothing. I am — and you are — made in the image of God. I am — and you are — God’s coworkers and partners in the world. This makes each of us immeasurably important.

But if I’m humble, I don’t invite God in only once it seems I’ve exhausted all other sources of help. I make room for God, even when life seems to be running smoothly. I recognize my own flaws in the flaws I see in others and ask God to help me grow in grace while I pray for others to grow in grace as well and to receive the help they need. I ask God to help me see how I can help and to give me the courage to take action to help.

How often do I live up to the images of humility I’ve just offered? Not nearly often enough. I want to change that. God, give me the grace to get out of my own way and to open more and more to Your way — the way that would expand my embrace and would fill me with hope and courage. Amen.

Work cited

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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Pulled in Two Directions

Posted in Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on June 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Michael Skok on Unsplash

“I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”

To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9: 61-62

I don’t like Jesus’ response. Doesn’t he care whether the family knows where the man disappeared to? Doesn’t he care that the family might be left without support? If God’s nature is to share Godself completely, and if Jesus gives a human nature to that God without diminishing the Divine nature in any way, (and I believe both statements are true) I believe he cares deeply about these concerns. So how do I reconcile this belief with that response?

I took that question to prayer. I told God I’d heard about abusive people and groups that cut individuals off from their families. How long could it really take the man to say farewell to his family and then catch up to the other followers? Was the man’s really so unreasonable?

An answer came to me: maybe there’s more to this scene than the literal meaning of the dialogue indicates. This possibility let me to more questions: How many times have I needed to do something important, especially something that will mean changes are ahead, and I’ve come up with some more ordinary task — like deleting emails—that I need to do before doing the more important thing? Maybe Jesus knows the man’s request isn’t really about saying farewell to the family and then setting out to do the work the man is being called to. Maybe Jesus knows the man is hesitant about following through on the commitment he just made. Maybe Jesus doesn’t want concerns and doubts of family members to cause the man to turn back, though I wouldn’t blame these family members if they were to question this man’s decision to follow an unknown preacher from an unimportant town who criticizes civil and religious authorities. I can’t call questions and doubts bad things when a person is about to make a life-changing choice. But I’m prone to analysis paralysis. Maybe Jesus didn’t want the man to fall prey to the very same paralysis and have time to lose the confidence and conviction that in the moment made him say, “I will follow you, Lord.”

“And if he finds [a lost sheep], amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.”

Matthew 18: 13

On one hand, I don’t want to think of God as someone who gives only one opportunity. After all, I’ve read and heard that the Good Shepherd leaves the gathered flock of ninety-nine to find one lost sheep (See Matt. 18: 10-14). On the other hand, I can see that, while life offers many opportunities, no single opportunity arrives in exactly the same circumstances as the previous one. The same test taken or the same job applied for at different times can mean different results, depending on how a person has prepared, how focused the person is when the big day comes, and who else is involved, to name just a few variables. The would-be follower in Luke might be able to return to his family and catch up to the other followers later, but what lessons will he miss while he’s delayed that he’ll have to learn in a different way in the future? What contributions will he be delayed in making? Will the good resulting from the lessons he might learn or the contributions he might make outweigh any good he might do by returning home or any harm that might result from him not returning home?

What if there’s harm to himself or others he needs to avoid by leaving his past in the past? All this is possible. I also know there may be people reading this post and saying the passage I began with is about not hesitating to answer God’s call, about making nothing else more important than following God. For anyone saying this, I hear you, but I’m not good at not hesitating, so I wasn’t about to put that message out there without qualifying it. I don’t want to be like, “Do as I say, and not as I do.”

Besides, I believe a lot of following God is about looking at the relationships and things in our lives in different ways, not always about leaving those relationships or things behind — unless those relationships or things are taking over our lives and/or harming the ability of each of us to become the unique and undistorted reflections of God we’re meant to become.

Work cited

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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Our Ascension

Posted in Prayer, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , on June 2, 2022| 1 Comment »

Photo by Sebin Thomas on Unsplash

Much of the Gospels concern themselves with the ways God became one with us through Jesus. But the stories about the ascension set the stage for something very much related but different: our ability to become one with God because Jesus returned to the Father and promised his followers they would receive the Holy Spirit. In Acts, He tells them the Spirit will allow them to be his “witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth (1:8).

Think about what being a witness in court means. A witness sees and shares what she sees. In this way, she receives and gives. The Spirit allows her to do this, to experience Christ and to allow others to experience Him through her. This witness is necessary because with only one person, there is no kingdom. I would define a kingdom as a gathering of people under one, anointed leader. God’s kingdom shares this nature with kingdoms bound by time and space. And yet, God’s kingdom is different. It doesn’t belong exclusively to one generation or one place. It doesn’t belong only to the pre-resurrection Jesus or to that first generation of followers, or to Israel. This difference isn’t something the disciples understand yet in Acts 1:6.

They ask Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replies that “It is not for [them] to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority (Acts 1:7). All the violence and suffering in the world can make this response as frustrating for us as it must have been for the apostles.

Fortunately, Jesus teaches us through the Lord’s Prayer that we should ask for the kingdom to come and for help in bringing it about by being effective witnesses and imitators of his life.

I read an article a while back that suggested putting The Lord’s Prayer in your own words can enrich your prayer life. Since I read that article, some ideas of how I might do this with the Lord’s Prayer have come to me now and then. When the Acts reading made me think of the prayer, I thought I’d share some of those ideas here. Please know that as I do so, it isn’t my intention to change the meaning of the prayer. But it is my intention to share what those traditional words mean to me.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Our nurturing Creator, Protector, Provider,
and Sanctuary of total and endless sharing,
help us make your presence felt and acknowledged in the world
by making our actions match our just and loving words.
Let us see through Your eyes, and transform our desires to make them align consistent with Yours
so that Your creation will reflect you more and more.
Give us what we need physically and spiritually today to do your work,
and help us trust that tomorrow you’ll do the same.
Forgive us for the ways our choices distort how each of us is uniquely gifted to reflect You
so the we can forgive others when their limitations and choices hurt us.
Help us to share with others what You give to us,
and help us to trust you and to love like You when we don’t feel like it.
Help us see through any lies about You, ourselves, and others,
and when we don’t see through them, help us not to lose hope.
Help us heal from the experiences these lies create.
Help us to believe and live as if everything is possible with You.

We open ourselves to Your bringing these words to fruition in our lives.

Work cited

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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