I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer; many words and long discourses being often the occasions of wandering: hold yourself in prayer before GOD, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man's gate: let it be your business to keep your mind in the presence of the LORD. If it sometimes wander, and withdraw itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that; trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind, than to re-collect it; the will must bring it back in tranquillity; if you persevere in this manner, GOD will have pity on you. (-Br. Lawrence)
When it comes to prayer, I must admit that I am not a natural. Prayer is something that I have to work at. Throughout my spiritual journey, I have had times of great consistency in regular prayer and many times where I just didn't make time. (I can honestly say, however, that the times when I've grown the most have been those when I made regular prayer a priority - a scheduled part of the day.) I really like some of the advice Br. Lawrence gives in this letter because I can identify with it. My mind seems to go "90 to nothing" when I try to slow down for time with God. All the things that I had meant to put on my "to do" list for the day flood into my mind, I start thinking about something I've been reading, I start daydreaming. I've found that I'm not that good at stopping early in the morning for an hour of uninterrupted prayer. I have learned a few things that have helped me, though, so I'll share them for those who might find it useful. 1. Schedule prayer. I find that if I put some time on the calendar or agenda for the day, I am more likely to actually make it a priority. I will never "get around to it," so I schedule it. Maybe this could be seen as being legalistic and "checking it off my list" for the day, but the way I see it: if it's important, you'll make time for it. 2. Breath prayers. I wrote about this a couple of days ago (see reflection on Third Letter), but taking Br. Lawrence's advice, I often try to keep to short prayers that I say throughout the day rather than one long prayer. 3. Body prayers. I find that it is helpful for me to pray with my whole body. Maybe this means praying while kneeling, while laying prostrate on the floor, while holding something that reminds me of God, prayer walking, or many other ways. I find it helpful to engage my body as well as my mind and spirit. (A couple of books that I've found helpful in this are Body Prayer by Padgitt and Prill and Praying With the Body by Roy Deleon.) 4. Keep a pad of paper nearby while praying. Since I always tend to think of a thousand things I "need" to do while praying, I sometimes keep a pad nearby. When a thought comes up, I don't fight it, I just stop for a moment, write it down, and return to my focus on God. I don't beat myself over this, I just try to refocus gently. 5. Doodling prayer. One practice I've started more recently is that of "Praying in Color." An idea I read about in the book, Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth, this is a kind of prayer through doodling. Although you don't have to be an artist to pray in this manner, I have found that it really allows me to be creative in my prayers in a rich and wonderful way. (MacBeth has a good introduction to the practice on her website: Praying in Color.) 6. Pray the Daily Office. Throughout the history of the Church, people have stopped at certain times throughout the day to say prescribed prayers. These are usually prayers that are written down, but have special meaning for a particular community. It may be as simple as saying the Lord's Prayer three times a day or as elaborate as meeting together to chant the psalms five times a day. If you are interested in a place to start on this idea of the Daily Office, try praying the Lord's Prayer in the morning, noon, and evening, really focusing on what you are saying and its meaning. Or, try this website put up by a friend of mine in the New Monasticism - it has prayers for each day (Common Prayer - not be confused with the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer). Now, before anyone else points it out, I fully recognize the seeming disconnect between this post and my reflection on Br. Lawrence's first letter. There, he talks about getting overwhelmed by all the diverse practices of the spiritual life. My own little list might fall into just that category. I don't see this as disconnected, however. The main thing is to know that these are all only tools. The goal of each of them is to help us find a meaningful way to connect with God. If you have that, awesome. If not, try one of these out and see if it is helpful. In the end, we just want to find a way to "pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances." What about you? What practices have you found helpful in your prayer life? Post them in the comments section (click on "comments" below the title).
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He requires no great matters of us; a little remembrance of Him from time to time, a little adoration: sometimes to pray for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, and sometimes to return Him thanks for the favors He has given you, and still gives you, in the midst of your troubles, and to console yourself with Him the oftenest you can. (-Br. Lawrence)
We really like heroes in our culture. I can remember growing up and loving superheroes - Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc. We love the guy (or girl) who swoops in, defeats the bad guy, and saves the day. We love biblical heroes as well: David slaying Goliath, Samson destroying the temple, Elijah defeating the prophets of Baal by calling down fire to consume the waterlogged offering. These are the stories legends are made of, as the saying goes. I think most of us, whether we would admit it or not, wonder whether we could make the tough choices in a situation like this. We wonder whether or not we could be heroes as well. We wonder what our response would be, if we had been asked the same question as the rich young ruler - would we be able to sell everything we have to follow after Jesus? We wonder about Jesus' statement, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). If given the chance, would we be able to lay down our life to save a friend or loved one? In reality, most of us will never know the answers to these questions. We will never be put in a situation that requires us to make such "heroic" decisions. Br. Lawrence seems to be reminding us that growth in spiritual maturity isn't about these life or death, all or nothing choices, anyway. "Practicing the Presence" may not lead us to sell everything to follow Jesus, but it may call us to give up that Venti White Chocolate Mocha at more than $4.00 a pop in order to provide a meal for a homeless veteran in our community. We may not be called to lay down our life for someone, but we may be called to give up a Saturday to volunteer to help build a house for a family in need. Unless you live in a prime time television melodrama, life is not primarily made up of heroic decisions. It's made up of 1,000 little, innocuous decisions that we don't think about during the day: Where am I going to eat? Do I really need to upsize my combo? Who am I going to call today? How do I treat the cashier at the grocery store? Am I going to watch t.v. or spend time with family? Am I going to mindlessly sit in traffic or use this time for prayer? Am I going to bury myself in a magazine or take a walk and enjoy God's creation? Am I going to memorize the stats of the latest Heisman trophy winner or memorize a bit of God's Word? Am I more concerned about the latest Hollywood gossip or what is going on in the life of neighbor who is struggling? They're little decisions that add up every single day. God may not be calling you to a heroic life, but he's calling you to follow him with humility and faithfulness - and those that do are heros in my book any day. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of center of
my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable. (-Br. Lawrence) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (-Apostle Paul; Philippians 4:4-7) I can't help but think that that these passages are closely linked. I once heard a pastor talking about the "peace that surpasses understanding" in this way (and I paraphrase): Have you ever thought about the ocean in a storm? On the surface, things may be going crazy: waves crashing, swells, rain, winds, lightening, thunder. It can be a really scary place. But, if you go just a couple hundred feet below the surface, things are completely different. The water below the surface is relatively unaffected by the storm. Just a little ways down, there is peace and calm and stillness. "I keep myself in the depth of center of my soul as much as I can" Br. Lawrence writes. When our lives are grounded in Christ; when we center our lives in the depths - below the surface chaos - we find there a "peace that surpasses understanding," a life free from the tyranny of fleeting anxiety, a joy that will not easily abandon us. This is my hope for my life (and yours) as we go on this journey together this year. My prayer is that as we live with mindfulness, we will begin to live, more and more, with depth as well - that we will not be thrown to and fro by troubles that are here today and gone tomorrow, but that we will live out of a rich wellspring of life that is bubbling up within us. My prayer is that we may know the peace the Apostle Paul is talking about. My prayer is that we me know the freedom from fear to which Br, Lawrence refers. My prayer is that each new day will become a day of resurrection, a day where we are "born again" into God's kingdom and into his presence. My prayer is that we will bring that kingdom into tangible reality in our church and in our community, drawing others into a deeper, fuller, more mindful life, to the glory of God. Amen. I know that for the right practice of it, the heart must be empty of all other things; because GOD will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone, without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.
Maybe it is the fact that Br. Lawrence refers in this letter to a sister who is just taking her vows to become a nun, or something about the passage above, but today's reading draws my mind to the person of St. Francis of Assisi. I have always had a fascination with Francis and have read and studied quite a lot about him. One of the key feature of his life and the religious order that he founded is an insistence on complete poverty (for the individual and for the order as a whole). Murray Bodo, a Franciscan Friar, Priest, and Author, describes it this way: ". . . for Francis violence and the will to exclude others and harm them is intimately tied to possessiveness. He tells his brothers that if they have possessions, then they will need arms to defend them . . . Francis' antidote to war is poverty, which frees him and his followers to embrace and include and give. They have no need to be defensive because they have nothing to defend" (The Way of St. Francis, p. 7). I think this has something to do with what Br. Lawrence is talking about. When we come to God with a goal in mind - some level of spirituality that we are trying to achieve - we often fill the space in which God desires to dwell with our own ambition. Likewise, if there are resentments that we hold, can we expect God to completely fill us? If we come to God with our plans already laid, expecting God to bless them, how can we be certain that we are not missing the voice of the Spirit calling us to something altogether different? If we with with our fists clenched around anything, they cannot be open, ready to receive what God has in store. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). If we come to God in complete poverty, we can do nothing apart from God intervening. It necessitates a filling from God. We can be present to God, present to others, present to ourselves, because we have no agendas, no hidden motives, no divided loyalties. I must confess: this is very attractive to me, but I'm not there yet. But today, I choose to "make the next right choice," the next baby step on the road there. What about you? He complains much of our blindness; and cries often that we are to pitied who content ourselves with so little. GOD, says he, has infinite treasure to bestow, and we take up with a little sensible devotion which passes in a moment.
Reading this today took me back to a memory from college. We were very close to the pastor of our church in college. It was a very large church, with a large staff. During the time we were there, they were looking for a "college pastor." Since the senior pastor knew how important this age was to young adults, he took time out of his schedule to spend time with us, invest in our lives, a. Dr. Register loved Caleb in the Bible. I remember more than one occasion that Caleb became the subject of his lesson. During one of those lessons, he made this comment (and I paraphrase), "My biggest fear is that one day I will get to heaven, stand before the Lord, only to hear him say, 'Why were you satisfied with so little? I wanted to do such great things through you, but you were content with so much less.'" Are we content with a little faith serving as the garnish for our lives? Are content to dabble in the spiritual? Is our discipleship to Jesus a part of our lives or are our lives a part of our discipleship? If is calling us to come to him, so that we may be filled to overflowing, are we bringing with us a little paper cup or a 55 gallon drum? Just some thoughts to ponder. I know I have been today. In his letter the the church at Thessolonica, the Apostle Paul wrote that they should “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This has always seemed to me a daunting task, but that is exactly what Br. Lawrence seems to be suggesting for the unnamed soldier mentioned in today’s passage.
Let him then think of God the most he can; let him accustom himself, by degrees, to this small but holy exercise; nobody perceives it, and nothing is easier than to repeat often in the day these little internal adorations. When I read this, I can’t help but think of a conversation I had some years back about the usefulness and importance of “breath prayers.” Now, I will admit that this is not a practice I grew up with or was very familiar with until relatively recently. The idea is this: you pick a short phrase, petition, or expression of praise. You commit this phrase to memory and repeat it to yourself as often as you think of it throughout the day. It becomes a mantra of sorts that you can use to re-center your thoughts and emotions on God and God's presence in your life. It is actually a wonderful practice once you get used to doing it. There is a pretty good introductory article found on the website of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (you can access that here) that gives a few more details, including some examples of breath prayers you might try out. What's been your experience? Have you tried breath prayers in the past? Have they been helpful? Would you be willing to give it a try? Why or why not? Approximately eight years ago, I had the wonderful privilege of playing in an orchestra where Yo-Yo Ma was the soloist (for those who don't know, Yo-Yo Ma is one of the best cellists in the world and one of the top five classical soloists in the world). We had the opportunity to not only perform with him, but to spend time talking with him and letting him share with us his love for music. What struck me most about this man was his complete lack of ego. While he owns a cello worth at least a million dollars, he let a bunch of college students play it without thinking twice. This was a man who loves people and was as gracious and giving as anyone I think I've ever met. He was the epitome of humility.
Reading the following passage from today's reading was what got me to thinking about this memory of meeting Yo-Yo Ma: I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King; touched with a sensible regret I confess to Him all my wickedness, I ask His forgiveness, I abandon myself in His hands, that He may do what He pleases with me. One of the key characteristics of those who walk closely with God is a sense of complete humility. Here, Br. Lawrence sounds a lot like the Apostle Paul, when he wrote, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15). I have found in my life that the people that seem to walk the closest to God are also the people that are most aware of their own sinfulness. It seems that the closer one is to God, the more aware that person is that he/she doesn't even compare to God's holiness and God's goodness. I'm embarrassed to say that there are times that I still think "Well, I'm not as bad as so-in-so" or "At least didn't do _____" or even "When is someone going to recognize that I did ______." I have to admit: I have a long way to go. What about you? What thoughts come to mind when you read a passage like this or see someone with this level humility? Today, we move from the accounts of the conversations with Brother Lawrence to the letters, actually penned by him. I wonder what your reaction is to the statement made right up front that Br. Lawrence would not be motivated to write these letters if they should be shared with anyone other than the one to whom he was writing. And yet, here we are, reading them 350 years later because they were shared and compiled into a book. That said, the following passage really got my attention as I was meditating on it today.
Having found in many books different methods of going to God, and divsers[e] practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly God's. When was the last time that you into a bookstore and took a look around the "Christian" or "religion" section? Better yet, when was the last time that you went into a "Christian" bookstore? The sheer amount and variety of the selection can be overwhelming! There are so many people that have written book after book about the next best way to grow in your relationship with God, the next best way to learn to pray, 3 easy steps to become a mature follower of Christ, 5 steps to get rid of anger in your life, a simple plan for financial freedom, meditation for dummies . . . you get the point. I love Br. Lawrence's take on this (and I'm sure we have immensely more resources available today than he did in his day). He says essentially, "I've looked all these ways and got overwhelmed. I tried to weigh them out and got confused." Who couldn't identify with that? So what does he do? "...I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He." I love the simplicity of devotion and faith. Maybe we make the spiritual life too complicated. Maybe we are looking for the easy fix, the quick 3 steps, the secret formula. Maybe Br. Lawrence is onto it - renounce everything that is not God. Maybe it's not a secret formula at all. The Apostle Paul said it well in his letter the church at Corinth: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). We can spend our days running from one practice to another, but real spiritual growth and maturity may very well come in our ability to push into the background of our life everything that is not God and seeing everything we do/have/say as an extension of our spiritual life and development. My wife, Michelle, likes to make a dessert called "Death by Chocolate" (at least that's what I call it). She takes Oreo cookies and crumbles them into a crust. On top of that, she puts rich chocolate ice cream. The topping is made out of pure fudge. Then, she pours hot fudge syrup over the top. "Over the top" it definitely is. It's so rich that you can only have a little bit at a time. That's a bit how I found the wisdom of this fourth conversation - there is so much of it that I don't know where to begin and I can't begin to try to to cover all its richness and complexity. Therefore, I want o highlight what was, for me, the best sentence in the chapter and the most life-changing in the book so far.
...our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for GOD's sake, which we commonly do for our own. Now, sometimes we as believers speak in Christianese - we speak with words that don't really make sense to those outside of the realm of faith. Sanctification is one such word. We don't use it apart from Bible-speak, but what does it really mean? Well, sanctification comes from the Greek word, hagiozo, which means to "separate" or to "set apart". Sanctification is not the same thing as salvation in the biblical sense of the term. Sanctification is basically the idea of "growing in holiness" or, to put it another way - becoming more and more like Jesus. So, becoming more like Jesus does not involve changing all of our behavior, or the work that we do. The real transformation, the radical change, is that we do many of the same things, but with a change in our motivation. Are you a school teacher? Well, instead of teaching because you like to teach, becoming like Jesus is asking, "How can I teach for God?" If you are a doctor, instead of treating patients for their own health, you do it as a service to the Lord. If you own a small business or work in retail, profit doesn't become the bottom line, serving God does. Dallas Willard puts a similar notion this way: "We must continually ask ourselves the question, 'How do I live my life as Jesus would live my life if he were I?'" Jesus doesn't need us to imitate Jesus (to be Jesus). Jesus did a perfect job being Jesus. We can't really improve on what he already did. What Jesus does desire is for us to enter into our own unique circumstances, with our own unique personality and giftedness, and live our life as he would that life with our circumstances. This is the real question behind the, now cliche, "What Would Jesus Do?" campaign. The real change is nothing more than a mental shift of focus, intention, and the real motivation behind our work. What are some other specific things that you can think of in your own life that might become acts of worship if you just altered the motive and reason for doing them? What's keeping you from doing that? He told me, that the foundation of the spiritual life in him had been a high notion and esteem of God in faith...
While in the car today, I caught the tail end of a message by Chip Ingram on the radio. Now, I must admit that I don't normally listen to very much preaching on the radio, but something he said caught my attention. Discussing his journey to faith, he said that if he had to do it all over again, he would have made an intentional effort at the beginning of his journey to focus on the character of God - studying who God is and getting to know God. The above sentence from Practicing the Presence reminded me of Ingram's message. The very foundation of our faith lies in understanding of who God is. Unfortunately, many of us carry around very faulty, unhelpful images of God that have been unconsciously taught to us by well-meaning mentors. Maybe it's the view of God as the big "Santa Clause" in the sky. Maybe is the bearded elderly grandpa image - he;s warm and fuzzy but now really able to do much. Maybe it's a view of an angry God who is waiting to punish us for our sin (one who even wants to send sinners to hell). Maybe it's a view of God in which we do things for God, in order to earn God's favor. Maybe this view goes all the way to the idea of "working" our way to into heaven. These are not images of the God that Jesus knew. Foundational to our spiritual life is a correct view/understanding of God the Father: the God who loves all of creation, who desires good for us, who is trustworthy and generous, who is holy and just. We need to build our spiritual lives on a sure foundation of the true character of God if we want the "temple" of our lives to withstand the storms of life. (For a good resource on this, see The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith.) What about you? What unhealthy or dangerous images of God were you taught growing up? What healthy, helpful images were you taught. Share your experience in the comments section (click on the "comments" link below the title of this post). |
Ecclesia Writer's ConsortiumWe are blessed at Ecclesia to have a number of gifted writers and teachers. Here, you'll find devotions, meditations, and musings from a sample of those writers. Archives
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