I want you to tell your stories! In the coming days and weeks, I encourage you to share on this blog your experiences of how prayer and fasting are impacting you.
As many of you know, during the season of Lent our congregation, along with hundreds of others, is encouraging one another to renew our commitment to live prayerfully and we are also encouraging one another to practice a fast one day each week leading up to Easter. (Please follow this link if you'd like to read more about prayer and fasting and how our congregation is embracing these ancient spiritual disciplines: http://almacog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/prayer-and-fasting.pdf.) I'm writing today to ask you to share your stories. Today and in the weeks to come, I invite you to share your experiences, good and bad, success and failure, on this blog. I'm planning to leave this blog entry standing, rather than write a new entry each week, as I typically do. I'm hopeful that many of you will share your stories, struggles and testimony in this space. (If you wish to remain anonymous that will, of course, be respected.)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A Study in Contrasts
A study in contrasts: I enjoyed a cup of coffee Monday morning before a beatific vision. I looked out through the back window of our family's home, where the morning sun dominated the sky, geese moved about lazily in the open waters behind my neighbor’s house, two of whom had wandered into our back yard where they were plucking the grass surrounding the raised garden beds. A swan couple peered about majestically from the broader waters of the Pine River. It was simply an extraordinary, exquisite morning. I went to bed Monday night after watching a horrific vision of destruction on the television screen. I watched amateur footage of the tsunami's initial strike in Japan, followed by aerial shots of the aftermath. I also watched footage of a nuclear power plant and heard the commentator speak in serious tones about what a 'meltdown' would mean for Japan and the world.
Two visions, one of unspeakable beauty, one of unutterable tragedy, competing for space in my mind. How to make sense of them? Beauty and tragedy.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Prayer and ... Now What's That Word Again?
On the lighter side...
Those of you who are part of our congregation (First Church of God in Alma) may be aware that we will soon be kicking off a forty day emphasis on prayer and fasting. This weekend I wrote a paper called "Made for More: Reflections on Forty Days of Prayer and Fasting," to explain the purpose and goals of this emphasis. I wrote the first draft of the paper in my very sloppy longhand, which became sloppier and sloppier the longer I wrote. As I finished my first draft, I looked back over the pages and realized that (have I mentioned that my handwriting is sloppy?) most of my small "s's" look more like an "r" than an "s" because I hadn't closed them at the bottom. The upshot is that most of the references to "fast" or "fasting" look more like "fart" or "farting." My handwritten notes appear to include some of the following gems:
"Why are we encouraging the practice of prayer and farting?"
"We embrace farting as an avenue of freedom."
"Farting is costly."
"... a shared day helps us to emphasize the corporate nature of this fart."
And I think my personal favorite is:
"If you are new to farting, or if you haven't done it for a considerable time, I suggest that you begin with a 24 hour fart."
Beehive and Bunhead would surely be proud.
Those of you who are part of our congregation (First Church of God in Alma) may be aware that we will soon be kicking off a forty day emphasis on prayer and fasting. This weekend I wrote a paper called "Made for More: Reflections on Forty Days of Prayer and Fasting," to explain the purpose and goals of this emphasis. I wrote the first draft of the paper in my very sloppy longhand, which became sloppier and sloppier the longer I wrote. As I finished my first draft, I looked back over the pages and realized that (have I mentioned that my handwriting is sloppy?) most of my small "s's" look more like an "r" than an "s" because I hadn't closed them at the bottom. The upshot is that most of the references to "fast" or "fasting" look more like "fart" or "farting." My handwritten notes appear to include some of the following gems:
"Why are we encouraging the practice of prayer and farting?"
"We embrace farting as an avenue of freedom."
"Farting is costly."
"... a shared day helps us to emphasize the corporate nature of this fart."
And I think my personal favorite is:
"If you are new to farting, or if you haven't done it for a considerable time, I suggest that you begin with a 24 hour fart."
Beehive and Bunhead would surely be proud.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Willfulness and Willingness
I am more and more persuaded that the way of the sacred adventure is a way of willingness rather than willfulness. Willfulness is that mindset that says, "I will get this done, I will accomplish these goals, if I fall short I will try harder and harder and harder..." Willfulness is an independent attitude. It is the self, by sheer act of will, setting out to accomplish its purposes. To be sure, some persons accomplish much by extraordinary efforts of will. Picture the athlete holding the gold medal and proclaiming, "I've accomplished this with sheer, unadulterated, hard work." Applied to religion, willfulness tries harder and harder to do the right and justify oneself. And again, it should be noted that such persons might very well accomplish a great deal. Some of the most religious people you've ever know might very well be willful people.
That said, I am more and more persuaded that the way of the sacred adventure, the way blazed by Jesus Christ, is the way of willingness. Where willfulness is independent and ever committed to trying harder and harder, willingness is surrendered to a source of life and love greater than oneself. A willing person is convinced that something great and beautiful is already taking place, even before she makes it her business. He believes there is a power operative in the world that is bringing about the good, and his business is to consent to that power and cooperate with it. A willing person is surrendered to the source of life. I use the word 'surrendered' in the hope that we can discard its negative connotations. I have in mind here the kind of surrender the sail experiences in relation to the breeze.
Willingness is not passive. Some of the most active people we've ever heard of--people like Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King--were, I believe, willing persons, surrendered to the source of life. I should note, too, that not all willing persons are known primarily for their religious lives. I think of artists and musicians whose lives and work have expressed something of this surrender.
The Apostle Paul invited us to be willing rather than willful when he repeatedly counseled us to walk not in the flesh, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. The move from willfulness to willingness is a life-long journey, an ongoing process of conversion. It is, I believe, the heart and goal of the Christian journey.
That said, I am more and more persuaded that the way of the sacred adventure, the way blazed by Jesus Christ, is the way of willingness. Where willfulness is independent and ever committed to trying harder and harder, willingness is surrendered to a source of life and love greater than oneself. A willing person is convinced that something great and beautiful is already taking place, even before she makes it her business. He believes there is a power operative in the world that is bringing about the good, and his business is to consent to that power and cooperate with it. A willing person is surrendered to the source of life. I use the word 'surrendered' in the hope that we can discard its negative connotations. I have in mind here the kind of surrender the sail experiences in relation to the breeze.
Willingness is not passive. Some of the most active people we've ever heard of--people like Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King--were, I believe, willing persons, surrendered to the source of life. I should note, too, that not all willing persons are known primarily for their religious lives. I think of artists and musicians whose lives and work have expressed something of this surrender.
The Apostle Paul invited us to be willing rather than willful when he repeatedly counseled us to walk not in the flesh, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. The move from willfulness to willingness is a life-long journey, an ongoing process of conversion. It is, I believe, the heart and goal of the Christian journey.
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