Just as it is unrealistic for us to believe that we have anything to say about when someone we love should die, it is equally unrealistic for us to think that if we believe death is graduation into eternity that will take its sting away. The reality is nothing quite compares with the pain that comes when someone we are close to dies.
When Papa was dying, I prepared myself for what was to come: his physical absence, the loneliness, the missing, how different life without him would be and everything else I thought I should brace myself for. Well, I had absolutely no clue as to what the desolation was going to be. The briefest description I can give it is: I felt excavated. Where my heart was was a huge, cavernous hole.
God was my strength. The memories of our life together sustained me. But the pain didn't stop. My therapy was to write and write and write.
Grief is like childbirth
It will not be hurried,
It will not be stopped.
You simply have to ride it through.
The hurting waxes and wanes
Like labor pains
And at the end you find
Life all new.
Grief is not a river
That moves on to one space
From another
Leaving what is passed behind.
It is a whirlpool
One tries to swim away from
With one¹s full might
Only to find
In one unguarded flash of time
It can suck you back and down
To almost drowning
Losing all you had gained
In time and space
Making struggle almost vain.
Grief is treacherous
And deep
Tumultuous, turbulent
Swallowing
As the sea sometimes -
Can it ever be left behind?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unlike morning
Which happens everyday,
Grief appears when it chooses
And looses
Its tempest without warning,
Without your knowing
The storm will blow, going
Only when it¹s finally spent.
Grief is a thief
Who sneaks up behind you
And knocks you down
Running off with your peace.
You have not a whit of control
It simply snatches your soul
And tosses it where it pleases.
You have nothing to say
About when grief comes and goes
You are at the throes
Of its mercy
The onslaughts happening
Without rhyme nor reason,
Have no season.
I do not understand any of this
I only know I cannot go through life
Bracing myself for these encounters
Sometimes protracted,
Sometimes brief,
So from now on, when you happen,
I¹ll just welcome you, Grief!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grief is having your insides excavated.
No, not your heart taken out
For that is instant death.
Rather, it is disembowelment -
Having your innards ripped out
While remaining alive....
Grief is having an anvil
Where your heart should be
So heavy you can barely breathe.
Grief is purgatory or hell
Catharsis or damnation -
You decide.
Grief is a roller-coaster ride
A climbing, a plunging, a levelling-off
Grief is very rough.
I keep thinking that if I could dissect grief,
If I could take it apart,
It might stop tearing up my heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Losing someone you love in death
Is like having the car you¹re in
Plunge off a bridge
Into the rapids below
And have the current take you
Down river, hitting the rocks
While the waters rush to engulf you
Leaving no air for breath -
Drown to death....
Except for this:
God "reached down from on high
And takes hold of me,
Draws me out of the water
And brings me into a spacious place.
He rescues me because
He delights in me."
Praise Him!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grief is heavy
A burden I cannot lay down
Nor unload
For it is the anvil where my heart
Is supposed to be.
Grief is unrelentingly there
Day after day.
It is not intermittent
Giving one pauses of rest now and then.
It never goes away.
Grief saps one¹s strength
Leaving one too weak to tackle
What one once could.
Incapacitating one from enjoying
What one once would.
One is helpless in the face of Grief -
Defenseless, fully at its mercy, at a loss....
One places one foot in front of the other,
Living what is less than life,
Trying to understand the Cross.
One goes through the motions
Of daily living seemingly oblivious
Of what is going on deep down within -
I suppose that is why I am so tired.
Grief is doing me in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My depression is simply the garden-variety kind,
not clinical, needing medical intervention.
It is nonetheless real and experiencing it, I find:
Depression defeats, deprives. It is drought.
The source of life is shut off,
the springs no longer flowing, the river bed bone dry.
Depression is darkness -
no sunlight to grow or see by,
no sun for warmth, no glow.
Depression is decline
No energy, no stamina, no drive
Just malaise, a falling, a going down.
Depression is death-dealing -
no more desire to live,
no hopes, no plans, no dreams.
I have also discovered
depression is a call to prayer -
the occasion to approach
God's rocking chair and climb
onto His lap
for Him to soothe me there:
He is the Source of life and light
Strength and hope, the Thrust
that gives me the impulse to
sing and wing and fling
my arms to embrace the universe
and reclaim my life again!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lord, enter everything in my life!
Enter my sorrow and my peace.
For my heartache, be surcease.
Enter my endeavors and my dreams,
my machinations and my schemes.
Enter my sins, redeem me;
my striving, sanctify me.
Enter my strengths, my flaws,
my sharing in Your Cross.
Enter my illusions, my realities.
Enter and stretch my capacities.
Enter my singing and winging,
my struggles, my falls,
the erratic way I answer your calls.
Enter my relationships, the way I love.
Enter every step, every nudge, every shove towards You.
Enter my darkness, be my Light.
Enter my absolutely everything
until every thing that has to do with me
Is You!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Loveletters (requested by Michelle Jackson)
Are there times when God seems so far away you wonder if He were not just a figment of your imagination?
It is like having a childhood neighbor who was your very best friend. But she moved to Australia. At first, you would write to each other as fast as the mails allowed. This was before e-mail. Then you wrote to each other every other month. As time passed, you sent cards on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, Valentines... It eventually dwindled to once a
year, then every other year and now it has become so sporadic you catch yourself thinking, "Was she just a figment of my imagination?"
When my relationship with God comes to that, I say to Him, "Lord, I need a loveletter from You."
Once, He said, "And what might you consider a loveletter from Me?"
I said, "Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream."
That afternoon, my daughter, Annie dropped by apropos of nothing bringing TWO pints of, yes, Coffee Heath Bar crunch ice cream!
I was recounting this to my friend, Gloria, who said, "He might send you loveletters but not me."
I countered, "Do you check your mailbox?"
"What do you mean?"
"God could be sending a loveletter every hour on the hour. But if you don't check your mailbox, you wouldn't know that, would you?"
Eventually, I made this an assignment in our Religion classes. The students were to note down the loveletters God sent them. A loveletter was anything that happened to them that made them feel loved by God. A cloudless blue sky, a bird on the wing, a ride from a friend while I was waiting at a bus stop - these were all loveletters from God for me. I wanted my students to
get in the habit of finding God everywhere. They learned to find Him in their favorite supper awaiting them at home, a game victory, a phone call from someone they hadn't heard from in a while, a grade higher than they expected. The more loveletters they found, the more they found.
One day, one of the girls said, "I haven't gotten a loveletter from God and I've been looking."
"Keep looking. He always sends one."
The day was almost over - "I still haven't gotten one!" she moaned.
She was about four feet from me. I asked her, "Can you see me?"
She said, "Yes, of course."
"Come here," I said as I beckoned her over and she approached.
"That's two letters, Baby: You are not blind; you can see. You are not paralyzed, you can walk."
And those days when even I can't find a loveletter, I tell God it is my turn to send Him one by being gracious about not getting one from Him. Sending loveletters is a two-way street so I send Him loveletters too even if He knows I am not a figment of His imagination!
It is like having a childhood neighbor who was your very best friend. But she moved to Australia. At first, you would write to each other as fast as the mails allowed. This was before e-mail. Then you wrote to each other every other month. As time passed, you sent cards on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, Valentines... It eventually dwindled to once a
year, then every other year and now it has become so sporadic you catch yourself thinking, "Was she just a figment of my imagination?"
When my relationship with God comes to that, I say to Him, "Lord, I need a loveletter from You."
Once, He said, "And what might you consider a loveletter from Me?"
I said, "Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream."
That afternoon, my daughter, Annie dropped by apropos of nothing bringing TWO pints of, yes, Coffee Heath Bar crunch ice cream!
I was recounting this to my friend, Gloria, who said, "He might send you loveletters but not me."
I countered, "Do you check your mailbox?"
"What do you mean?"
"God could be sending a loveletter every hour on the hour. But if you don't check your mailbox, you wouldn't know that, would you?"
Eventually, I made this an assignment in our Religion classes. The students were to note down the loveletters God sent them. A loveletter was anything that happened to them that made them feel loved by God. A cloudless blue sky, a bird on the wing, a ride from a friend while I was waiting at a bus stop - these were all loveletters from God for me. I wanted my students to
get in the habit of finding God everywhere. They learned to find Him in their favorite supper awaiting them at home, a game victory, a phone call from someone they hadn't heard from in a while, a grade higher than they expected. The more loveletters they found, the more they found.
One day, one of the girls said, "I haven't gotten a loveletter from God and I've been looking."
"Keep looking. He always sends one."
The day was almost over - "I still haven't gotten one!" she moaned.
She was about four feet from me. I asked her, "Can you see me?"
She said, "Yes, of course."
"Come here," I said as I beckoned her over and she approached.
"That's two letters, Baby: You are not blind; you can see. You are not paralyzed, you can walk."
And those days when even I can't find a loveletter, I tell God it is my turn to send Him one by being gracious about not getting one from Him. Sending loveletters is a two-way street so I send Him loveletters too even if He knows I am not a figment of His imagination!
Spiritual Kung Fu
Recently, I came across a quote I thought was powerful: "So much more suffering comes into the world from people taking offense than from people giving offense." (Ken Keyes) I have also discovered that when one doesn't take offense at a remark that was meant to offend, the bomb meant to destroy is defused. Mr. Spock of Star Trek once said something to the effect that if you did not accept a dagger directed against you as hostile it would not have the power to penetrate you. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." These beliefs give us a lot of power to deflect hurt so that we do not have to enclose ourselves behind walls to protect ourselves.
I have heard people often remark that Jesus' teaching about turning the other cheek is totally stupid. I think that's because they think that Jesus means, "Let yourself be abused." Jesus is not stupid. I call His strategy Spiritual Kung Fu where you let your adversary's momentum against you be used against himself.
Ordinarily, when we see someone advancing upon us to attack us, figuratively speaking, we do unto him before he does unto us. Jesus says not to. As the adversary advances and is practically upon us, we step aside and he runs straight into the wall behind us and knocks himself out. It's already been said: "Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who persecute you. Do not repay evil for evil...(Romans 12)" It's the heart's adventure race!
One of my favorite images about this is a scene from the movie, "The Next Karate Kid." It is the young girl Julie's 18th birthday and Mr. Miyagi's gift to her is a karate demonstration. He stands at one end of the long Buddhist monastery hall and to Julie's dismay, a monk sends an arrow flying straight towards Mr. Miyagi. Just as the arrow reaches him, Mr. Miyagi catches it in his fist and is untouched by it. This is the skill I have been trying to learn in dealing with relationships. Spiritual self-defense.
This is not an easy concept to assimilate so here's another illustration. Mr. Wong had an established restaurant in Chinatown and enjoyed many regular customers. Then, accross the street from him a Mr. Foo opens another Chinese restaurant. Some of Mr. Wong's customers went over to try the new one. They returned to Mr. Wong and told him that Mr. Foo had told them that Mr. Wong's kitchen was unsanitary and vermin-infested, that he used trans-fats and generally tried to discredit him. Mr. Wong responded by saying, "You must have misunderstood him. Mr. Foo is too honorable to malign me like that." Naturally that statement got back to Mr. Foo who, shame-faced, went over to Mr. Wong to apologize for what he had done.
To fight hostility with hostility is like trying to wash a dirty car with mud. We remove dirt with clean water. Repel the darkness with light. We catch the arrow with our hand before it pierces us. We deflect the spears. We love our enemy as Jesus enjoined us. To be hostile to our enemy is to become like him. To deflect the hostility is to remain untouched.
I have heard people often remark that Jesus' teaching about turning the other cheek is totally stupid. I think that's because they think that Jesus means, "Let yourself be abused." Jesus is not stupid. I call His strategy Spiritual Kung Fu where you let your adversary's momentum against you be used against himself.
Ordinarily, when we see someone advancing upon us to attack us, figuratively speaking, we do unto him before he does unto us. Jesus says not to. As the adversary advances and is practically upon us, we step aside and he runs straight into the wall behind us and knocks himself out. It's already been said: "Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who persecute you. Do not repay evil for evil...(Romans 12)" It's the heart's adventure race!
One of my favorite images about this is a scene from the movie, "The Next Karate Kid." It is the young girl Julie's 18th birthday and Mr. Miyagi's gift to her is a karate demonstration. He stands at one end of the long Buddhist monastery hall and to Julie's dismay, a monk sends an arrow flying straight towards Mr. Miyagi. Just as the arrow reaches him, Mr. Miyagi catches it in his fist and is untouched by it. This is the skill I have been trying to learn in dealing with relationships. Spiritual self-defense.
This is not an easy concept to assimilate so here's another illustration. Mr. Wong had an established restaurant in Chinatown and enjoyed many regular customers. Then, accross the street from him a Mr. Foo opens another Chinese restaurant. Some of Mr. Wong's customers went over to try the new one. They returned to Mr. Wong and told him that Mr. Foo had told them that Mr. Wong's kitchen was unsanitary and vermin-infested, that he used trans-fats and generally tried to discredit him. Mr. Wong responded by saying, "You must have misunderstood him. Mr. Foo is too honorable to malign me like that." Naturally that statement got back to Mr. Foo who, shame-faced, went over to Mr. Wong to apologize for what he had done.
To fight hostility with hostility is like trying to wash a dirty car with mud. We remove dirt with clean water. Repel the darkness with light. We catch the arrow with our hand before it pierces us. We deflect the spears. We love our enemy as Jesus enjoined us. To be hostile to our enemy is to become like him. To deflect the hostility is to remain untouched.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Death is Graduation
" Anyways, we really need to talk about death because I'm struggling with understanding it." - LTF'er
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the easiest way to understand death is to see it as our graduation to Eternity. When we finish 8th grade, we graduate and move on to high school. Then college, graduate school, and on to what you call "real life." When we graduate into eternity, we pass on to real "real life."
Here are a few things to remember about death. No one escapes it. Everyone that was ever born dies eventually. We all have our turns. Psalm 139:16 says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." Do we expect our loved ones not to die? Do we get to call the shots as to when they die? If we answered "Yes" to these questions then we are dodging reality. Reality has proven time and again that we and our loved ones will all die. And we don't really have anything to say about when, where, who, why and how. I work on the premise that I can't really tell God how to God when I can't even Lolita Lolita.
Those of us who believe in the teachings of Jesus know this much about what happens when we slip into eternity: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Cor. 2:9) In other words not even our wildest imaginings can come close to the joys our Father has in store for our Homecoming. So death is not a fearsome thing. It is fearsome only when we focus on our separation from our dying loved one. When you marry, will you look forward to your new life with your spouse or will you look upon your marriage as the sorrowful separation from your parents? It is also desolate if we see God as a Cosmic Sadist who is bent on making us miserable instead of the loving Father who cannot do enough for us.
When Papa knew his days were numbered, he threw himself into enjoying these last days to the hilt. He encouraged us to gather as often as we could. He would plan pizza parties at 11:00 p.m. He loved having the grandkids all around him and chit-chat with them. No lamenting that the end was near. He just made sure that he was filling every remaining moment savoring what he loved most: family, food, fishing... Three weeks before he died, our 5 sons and 2 sons-in-law took him big bass fishing at Lake Kissimmee in Florida. At our last New Year's eve together, 7 weeks before his Homegoing, we waltzed to Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne" though he was already having a hard time just moving around. I never saw anyone put all his energies into cramming so much life into his last days. He taught us so much about how to transition from life to Life!
I look forward to that moment in my life when I step over the threshold of death and enter Eternity. And when I do, I shall sprint for Jesus and give Him a body hug which will take some doing because I won't have my body. We are also blessed in that we believe in the Resurrection; that death is not the end of all. We believe that someday we will all be reunited in our Father's house. The only fear I have left is that not all of us will be there; that some of us will be missing. I earnestly pray that we shall all be there! Please make sure we will all be there.
If you get to heaven before I do, please meet me at the Gate. If I get there before you do you can bet that I will be there at the Gate ready to give you my biggest hug. Jesus is the Resurrction and the Life and we who believe in Him will live even though we die. Though we will be separated, we will reunite. In a little while we will see them no more, and then after a little while we will see them because they are going to the Father. We will grieve but our grief will turn to joy. (John 16:17, 20)
"Death is turning out the lights because dawn has arrived."
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the easiest way to understand death is to see it as our graduation to Eternity. When we finish 8th grade, we graduate and move on to high school. Then college, graduate school, and on to what you call "real life." When we graduate into eternity, we pass on to real "real life."
Here are a few things to remember about death. No one escapes it. Everyone that was ever born dies eventually. We all have our turns. Psalm 139:16 says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." Do we expect our loved ones not to die? Do we get to call the shots as to when they die? If we answered "Yes" to these questions then we are dodging reality. Reality has proven time and again that we and our loved ones will all die. And we don't really have anything to say about when, where, who, why and how. I work on the premise that I can't really tell God how to God when I can't even Lolita Lolita.
Those of us who believe in the teachings of Jesus know this much about what happens when we slip into eternity: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Cor. 2:9) In other words not even our wildest imaginings can come close to the joys our Father has in store for our Homecoming. So death is not a fearsome thing. It is fearsome only when we focus on our separation from our dying loved one. When you marry, will you look forward to your new life with your spouse or will you look upon your marriage as the sorrowful separation from your parents? It is also desolate if we see God as a Cosmic Sadist who is bent on making us miserable instead of the loving Father who cannot do enough for us.
When Papa knew his days were numbered, he threw himself into enjoying these last days to the hilt. He encouraged us to gather as often as we could. He would plan pizza parties at 11:00 p.m. He loved having the grandkids all around him and chit-chat with them. No lamenting that the end was near. He just made sure that he was filling every remaining moment savoring what he loved most: family, food, fishing... Three weeks before he died, our 5 sons and 2 sons-in-law took him big bass fishing at Lake Kissimmee in Florida. At our last New Year's eve together, 7 weeks before his Homegoing, we waltzed to Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne" though he was already having a hard time just moving around. I never saw anyone put all his energies into cramming so much life into his last days. He taught us so much about how to transition from life to Life!
I look forward to that moment in my life when I step over the threshold of death and enter Eternity. And when I do, I shall sprint for Jesus and give Him a body hug which will take some doing because I won't have my body. We are also blessed in that we believe in the Resurrection; that death is not the end of all. We believe that someday we will all be reunited in our Father's house. The only fear I have left is that not all of us will be there; that some of us will be missing. I earnestly pray that we shall all be there! Please make sure we will all be there.
If you get to heaven before I do, please meet me at the Gate. If I get there before you do you can bet that I will be there at the Gate ready to give you my biggest hug. Jesus is the Resurrction and the Life and we who believe in Him will live even though we die. Though we will be separated, we will reunite. In a little while we will see them no more, and then after a little while we will see them because they are going to the Father. We will grieve but our grief will turn to joy. (John 16:17, 20)
"Death is turning out the lights because dawn has arrived."
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Prayer Book Guidelines
If I taught you as a freshman then you kept this Prayer Book. I thought the least I could do was keep one right along with you. Just in case you might want to keep it again, I'm posting the guidelines. Happy Praying!
Prayer Book Guidelines
We keep this prayerbook to serve as our telephone to God. Every time we use
it we are making a connection with Him. Just as it is one thing to learn
all about celebrities, we know it is quite another to know them personally.
So it is with God. It is not enough just to learn all about Him. It is very
important that we we get to know Him enough to have a real relationship
with Him.
1. Get a notebook where you will write your prayers.
2. There will be 10 different ways of praying we will go into. We can do
all 10 in one day or take turns using each one once a day.
a) Praise
b) Repentance
c) Petitions
d) Thanksgiving
e) Listening
f) Quotes
g) New Testament
h) Old Testament
i) Proverbs
j) Loveletters
3. What each kind of prayer means:
a) PRAISE - In this prayer, we praise God for Himself not for what He
does. “Lord, you are so good and wonderful! Everything about You is about
kindness, love and compassion. I want to love you more.” Praising Him for
what He does comes under Thanksgiving. If you want to get the hang of
Praise, check out the psalms of Praise and model your prayers after them.
Praising God opens up a whole new world of wonder.
b) REPENTANCE - In this prayer, reflect on all the things you have been
or done that were less than loving and consider how that affects your
relationship with God and others. “Lord, today, I was very unkind to
someone and I really hurt her feelings. I am very sorry for having done
that. Please teach me to be as kind as You.” When we keep track of the
times we refuse to love (which is what sin is) it helps us to love more and
refuse less..
c) PETITIONS - This is the prayer we all know how to say. “Lord, please
help my grandmother to get well. Please help me to have better grades.
Please help me to get along with my parents. Please help the homeless and
the hungry. Please help me as I deal with this overwhelming grief.” This
prayer helps us to remember how much we need God’s help and how eager He is
to help us.
d) THANKSGIVING - This is simply thanking God for everything in our
lives: “Lord, thank you for my health and well-being. Thank you for my
family and friends who love me. Thank you even for my problems because they
help me to grow.” The habit of being thankful will make us happier people
because it helps us to see all the good things we have.
e) LISTENING - Prayer is much more than just saying things to God. It
is also listening to what He says to us. This is not easy to do. It
involves being very quiet, focusing, reading a Gospel story, placing
ourselves in the scene of that Gospel story, interacting with Jesus as if we
were right there with Him and hearing what He may have to say. This takes a
while to learn but practice does make perfect.
f) QUOTES - This involves loooking for and writing down significant
quotes that will help us become wiser people. Example “All that has to
happen for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” (Edmund
Burke) You then add why you consider this significant.
g) NEW TESTAMENT - Read the New Testament and copy a quote you find
particularly meaningful. Example - “I can do all things in Christ Who
strengthens me.” (Philippians 4: 13). Going through the New Testament will
familiarize you with Jesus’ mindset.
h) OLD TESTAMENT - Now, read the Old Testament and find a significant
quote to copy. The Psalms and Isaiah are particularly good sources. Here’s
one: “Let rejoicing in the Lord be your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) Looking
through the Old Testament will help you see how God always wanted human
beings to be in a close relationship with Him.
i) PROVERBS - Go through the Book of Proverbs and copy the wise sayings
you find meaningful. For example, “Hatred stirs up disputes, but love
covers all offenses.” Chapter 10, verse 12. These last three prayers will
teach you how to pray with the Bible.
j) LOVELETTERS - Think on what has happened to you most recently that
made you feel very loved by God. Example: “I have been feeling very
discouraged lately and today I got a letter from a friend I hadn’t heard
from in a long time telling me how my presence in her life had made her a
better person and she wanted me to know that.” This prayer teaches us to
always look for and find all the wonderful things God is constantly sending
us. “Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush is afire with God.”
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
YOU CAN DO A PRAYER A NIGHT FOLLOWED BY A BRIEF REFLECTION ON YOUR DAY.
THIS GIVES YOU A BITE-SIZE PRAYER TIME THAT WILL KEEP YOUR PRAYER LIFE IN
TOP FORM FROM DAY TO DAY. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED HOW MUCH IT WILL DE-STRESS
YOU.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. What do you want most from life?
2. How are you going to achieve in a foll-proof way?
3. What are the variable that could keep you from achieving them?
4. What are you going to do with these variables?
5. On a scale of 0 to 10, how much does God figure in your life?
6. How much do you want Him to figure in your life?
7. If your answers to 5 and 6 don’t match, how come?
Prayer Book Guidelines
We keep this prayerbook to serve as our telephone to God. Every time we use
it we are making a connection with Him. Just as it is one thing to learn
all about celebrities, we know it is quite another to know them personally.
So it is with God. It is not enough just to learn all about Him. It is very
important that we we get to know Him enough to have a real relationship
with Him.
1. Get a notebook where you will write your prayers.
2. There will be 10 different ways of praying we will go into. We can do
all 10 in one day or take turns using each one once a day.
a) Praise
b) Repentance
c) Petitions
d) Thanksgiving
e) Listening
f) Quotes
g) New Testament
h) Old Testament
i) Proverbs
j) Loveletters
3. What each kind of prayer means:
a) PRAISE - In this prayer, we praise God for Himself not for what He
does. “Lord, you are so good and wonderful! Everything about You is about
kindness, love and compassion. I want to love you more.” Praising Him for
what He does comes under Thanksgiving. If you want to get the hang of
Praise, check out the psalms of Praise and model your prayers after them.
Praising God opens up a whole new world of wonder.
b) REPENTANCE - In this prayer, reflect on all the things you have been
or done that were less than loving and consider how that affects your
relationship with God and others. “Lord, today, I was very unkind to
someone and I really hurt her feelings. I am very sorry for having done
that. Please teach me to be as kind as You.” When we keep track of the
times we refuse to love (which is what sin is) it helps us to love more and
refuse less..
c) PETITIONS - This is the prayer we all know how to say. “Lord, please
help my grandmother to get well. Please help me to have better grades.
Please help me to get along with my parents. Please help the homeless and
the hungry. Please help me as I deal with this overwhelming grief.” This
prayer helps us to remember how much we need God’s help and how eager He is
to help us.
d) THANKSGIVING - This is simply thanking God for everything in our
lives: “Lord, thank you for my health and well-being. Thank you for my
family and friends who love me. Thank you even for my problems because they
help me to grow.” The habit of being thankful will make us happier people
because it helps us to see all the good things we have.
e) LISTENING - Prayer is much more than just saying things to God. It
is also listening to what He says to us. This is not easy to do. It
involves being very quiet, focusing, reading a Gospel story, placing
ourselves in the scene of that Gospel story, interacting with Jesus as if we
were right there with Him and hearing what He may have to say. This takes a
while to learn but practice does make perfect.
f) QUOTES - This involves loooking for and writing down significant
quotes that will help us become wiser people. Example “All that has to
happen for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” (Edmund
Burke) You then add why you consider this significant.
g) NEW TESTAMENT - Read the New Testament and copy a quote you find
particularly meaningful. Example - “I can do all things in Christ Who
strengthens me.” (Philippians 4: 13). Going through the New Testament will
familiarize you with Jesus’ mindset.
h) OLD TESTAMENT - Now, read the Old Testament and find a significant
quote to copy. The Psalms and Isaiah are particularly good sources. Here’s
one: “Let rejoicing in the Lord be your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) Looking
through the Old Testament will help you see how God always wanted human
beings to be in a close relationship with Him.
i) PROVERBS - Go through the Book of Proverbs and copy the wise sayings
you find meaningful. For example, “Hatred stirs up disputes, but love
covers all offenses.” Chapter 10, verse 12. These last three prayers will
teach you how to pray with the Bible.
j) LOVELETTERS - Think on what has happened to you most recently that
made you feel very loved by God. Example: “I have been feeling very
discouraged lately and today I got a letter from a friend I hadn’t heard
from in a long time telling me how my presence in her life had made her a
better person and she wanted me to know that.” This prayer teaches us to
always look for and find all the wonderful things God is constantly sending
us. “Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush is afire with God.”
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
YOU CAN DO A PRAYER A NIGHT FOLLOWED BY A BRIEF REFLECTION ON YOUR DAY.
THIS GIVES YOU A BITE-SIZE PRAYER TIME THAT WILL KEEP YOUR PRAYER LIFE IN
TOP FORM FROM DAY TO DAY. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED HOW MUCH IT WILL DE-STRESS
YOU.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. What do you want most from life?
2. How are you going to achieve in a foll-proof way?
3. What are the variable that could keep you from achieving them?
4. What are you going to do with these variables?
5. On a scale of 0 to 10, how much does God figure in your life?
6. How much do you want Him to figure in your life?
7. If your answers to 5 and 6 don’t match, how come?
Sunday, July 15, 2007
When things get out of control
Last week, one of the 2001 girls asked, "What does one do when things get out of control?
All I could think of to say was, "Surf!" as in "Surf in the Lord." Many years ago when things in my life were out of control, (they tend to do that a lot in a big family) I wrote this short verse:
"Life in the Lord
is surfing free
without fear of falling
and when you fall, to discover:
God is the Sea!"
Trying to control our lives is probably the biggest stress-inducer because it defies reality. We try to make life fit the streetcar tracks we want to assign it too. But life is never that tidy. What we need to navigate life with are the abilities of a skilled surf-rider. As we all well know the distance between where the waves begin and the shore is not a straight line. We ride with the wave. The thrill comes from believing we can do it. (I have never surfed ever and won't be likely to - I just love to watch surfers on TV) So it is with life - riding on God, we will make it. It isn't all up to us. He is a big part of the game! He is the Wave!
I used to ask you, "If your life were a bus, who's driving?" Is God riding in your bus? Where is He seated? Do you backseat- drive? I used to backseat-drive a lot. "Don't turn there, Lord. Go straight." "Why are we heading this way?" And so forth and so on. At those times, He would stop and gently ask, "Who's driving? You or I?" And I would say, "You are, Lord." And He would kindly respond, "Then please let Me."
Now that I am older and have learned to trust Him more, I don't backseat-drive anymore. I go to the back of the car, lie down and take a nap, totally willing for Him to take me wherever He wants us to go. That trust, that willingness is the key to my peace.
My grandmother always wore long skirts that had a train. We lived in a house with highly polished mahogany floors. She would drop the train to her skirt and my sister and I took turns riding on the train. When she walked, we would glide over the floors smoothly. We can live like that - riding on God's train as it were. Ot to fit the image better, our Blessed Mother's train. What it entails is realizing that they are FOR us, LOVE us and can be trusted to take us where we need to go. As Jesus said, "My food is to do the Will of the Father." (John 4:34)
Happy surfing, Little One! Happy riding on our Mother's train! Enjoy the bus ride- the Bus Driver loves us!
All I could think of to say was, "Surf!" as in "Surf in the Lord." Many years ago when things in my life were out of control, (they tend to do that a lot in a big family) I wrote this short verse:
"Life in the Lord
is surfing free
without fear of falling
and when you fall, to discover:
God is the Sea!"
Trying to control our lives is probably the biggest stress-inducer because it defies reality. We try to make life fit the streetcar tracks we want to assign it too. But life is never that tidy. What we need to navigate life with are the abilities of a skilled surf-rider. As we all well know the distance between where the waves begin and the shore is not a straight line. We ride with the wave. The thrill comes from believing we can do it. (I have never surfed ever and won't be likely to - I just love to watch surfers on TV) So it is with life - riding on God, we will make it. It isn't all up to us. He is a big part of the game! He is the Wave!
I used to ask you, "If your life were a bus, who's driving?" Is God riding in your bus? Where is He seated? Do you backseat- drive? I used to backseat-drive a lot. "Don't turn there, Lord. Go straight." "Why are we heading this way?" And so forth and so on. At those times, He would stop and gently ask, "Who's driving? You or I?" And I would say, "You are, Lord." And He would kindly respond, "Then please let Me."
Now that I am older and have learned to trust Him more, I don't backseat-drive anymore. I go to the back of the car, lie down and take a nap, totally willing for Him to take me wherever He wants us to go. That trust, that willingness is the key to my peace.
My grandmother always wore long skirts that had a train. We lived in a house with highly polished mahogany floors. She would drop the train to her skirt and my sister and I took turns riding on the train. When she walked, we would glide over the floors smoothly. We can live like that - riding on God's train as it were. Ot to fit the image better, our Blessed Mother's train. What it entails is realizing that they are FOR us, LOVE us and can be trusted to take us where we need to go. As Jesus said, "My food is to do the Will of the Father." (John 4:34)
Happy surfing, Little One! Happy riding on our Mother's train! Enjoy the bus ride- the Bus Driver loves us!
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