Patterns of Prayer - Week 4

(One small disclaimer: this has been the toughest blog to write so far. If I have stepped on toes or offended, I apologize, but I believe this is an area in need of great prayer!!)

Church: (n) Webster’s defines it as a building for public worship.
Wikipedia says it is an association of people with a common belief system
How do you define it? What do you see when you look at the church?

This weeks focus is going to be on the church here in the United States. As we have been praying, we’ve gone from the centerpoint of looking at patterns in ourselves, then we’ve moved to our family and friends. Last week we looked at our patterns towards those “invisibles” around us, and so now our focus extends out another circle – to that of the church in America.

When David and I first joined OC, we were challenged by some words from our team leader. He said (after spending many years overseas), “the rest of world is watching the US church”. At first this seemed like an overstatement, but we began to ask ourselves…What does the rest of the world see when it looks at the US church?

Here are some possible (and ugly) descriptors: individualistic – the focus is on ME, consumeristic – the organization exists to serve ME, lack of unity – let’s separate myself from those different from ME, institutionalistic (is that a word?) – I am obsessed with the size of MY institution and holding on to MY position…are we noticing a pattern???

On the other hand, one of the most beautiful metaphors for the church is that of a Bride. She comes down the isle - stunning in her beauty, overflowing with love for her Groom, the center of attention, yet all her attention is on him. What are the patterns the US church needs to adopt to become this radiant Bride? How do we get there?

Praying Lent:
Pray for the revealing and conviction of the ugly patterns the church here in America so readily falls into. Pray she comes to a place of confession, repentance and a new reliance on her Groom (God). Pray for unity.

Living Lent:
Find a beautiful picture of a bride, frame it and put it somewhere you will see it often. Use it as a reminder to pray for the US church and for yourself, as you may be a part of the Bride here in the States.

Patterns of Prayer - Week 3

This week our focus of prayer takes one more "ripple" out. We will pray for people that still live around us, though perhaps not as immediate as our friends, family and neighbors. This group of people may be easier to pray for, but it may be more difficult to break our patterns of behavior toward them.

I was challenged this week by a quote from a book:

“I know what it’s like to move around in the world, but not really be a part of it. And I know what it’s like to have people stare right through you, and not believe what they are seeing.”.. (Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult)

It made me think of my patterns of behavior toward those who are "invisible" to me in this world - the poor, the immigrant, the elderly, even my enemy. They are invisible because my pattern is to look away or direct my eyes to see something else. I think about the guy who stands on the corner of the Costco parking lot holding a sign that explains his condition to me. I am much more comfortable not making eye contact with him, or looking right through him and getting on with my life.

Even when I give toward this group, they can still be invisible. I think many remain invisible to us because we tend to give to organizations that work with "them", but it allows us to still never really see them. Or perhaps we see them as a group, or clump them together, instead of seeing individual people.

Praying Lent:
Perhaps this is just my hang up, but I'd like to challenge all of us to look at our patterns of thinking, seeing and relating to people in this "invisible" category. (Maybe our first prayer should be for God to show us who is in this category for us!) And then, could we ask God how He sees those invisibles? What are His patterns of extending the Kingdom to these ones? How do our patterns not align with His and, through confession, we ask that we would begin to see more of what He sees and do more of what He does.

Living Lent:
This is a tough one, because our "invisible" people will all be different. I think we need to somehow SEE people in this category and interact with them. So maybe this means stopping and talking to them - really seeing them. Maybe it means offering a meal to them and joining them. What does it mean for you? What is God telling you to do this week, to live out His heart for invisibles?

Of Webs and Spiders

God says, “I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

“Choose life.” That’s God’s call for us, and there is not a moment in which we do not have to make that choice. Life and death are always before us. In our imaginations, our thoughts, our words, our gestures, our actions … even in our non-actions. This choice for life starts in a deep interior place. Underneath very life-affirming behavior I can still harbor death-thoughts and death-feelings. The most important question is not “Do I kill?” but “Do I carry a blessing in my heart or a curse?”
— Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey

Father, we weave a tangled web in our interior lives. On the outside we look kind and loving, but on the inside we are the spider laying in wait for her next meal. Forgive us. Teach us new patterns that carry blessings to others, not death.

Patterns - Week 2

This last week, I've been struck by the patterns of 'what I've done and what I've left undone'. Some of you have too. One person shared with me that she wrote down the patterns in her life that God was showing forth and another wrote a beautiful blog in which she shares "It’s starting to be clear to me that the journey through Lent must start with me. It must start with looking at my own brokenness and my own sinfulness…and it must be a look that leads to repentance."

I have been stirred with thoughts about confession - that it is the broken place that brings vitality to our walk with God. It is a place of extreme humility but also of great freedom. I am convicted that I so often choose to 'fix it' myself, a pattern that sometimes renders God unnecessary.



Praying Lent:
As we move out in our concentric circles, this week we will look at and pray about/for the patterns in our relationships with our families, friends and neighbors. What sorts of patterns in those relationships do we 'do or leave undone' that need to change? Do we give and receive forgiveness with those in this circle? Are we actively pursuing reconciliation? Are we confessing to one another?

(WOW! Looking at the above questions, it might be one heck of a week between me and God and those around me!! Please pray for me...as I'll pray for you!)

Living Lent:
For those of you who like tangible prayers, how about this: Find a piece of patterned cloth that perhaps represents your Lenten journey. Find photos (or representative items) of the family, friends, or neighbors that God shows you that you need to change your patterns of relating with. Put them in the cloth and tie it up. Keep it in a place to remind you that this is what you carry on this week of the journey...and pray for insight and courage to change the pattern.

Blessed

Mikaela and I attended a Chinese New Year celebration the other day. I photographed the event and Mikaela got to play with children (mostly little Asian ones, to her delight!) It was a fun event!

I received this from a friend the other day and thought it was neat, so I decided to share it.

Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is a time when we count our blessings for the year just about to end and look forward to perhaps a more blessed one in the new year.
Indeed it’s by Providence that we are so blessed that we can celebrate the incoming year in peace at a time when the world around us seems to be descending into chaos.
For Christians, it’s a double celebration because Lent (Easter Celebrations) - the most important festival in the Christian calendar - begins on Chinese New Year eve this year.

The author goes on to talk about the decorations that are put up for Chinese New Year...

The all time favorite is undoubtedly decorations with the character (福) ,meaning blessed. It is not only quintessentially Chinese, it’s a life giving word that says the same thing in any language because its speaks of the blessings that we all hope for.
It’s an interesting character that is composed of four radicals. The first one on the left is a radical associated with all things divine. The three radicals stacked up on the right hand side consist of the characters for one, mouth and rice field or garden.
The word ‘blessed’(福) is a word picture of the original blessedness of mankind. One man (一口)in a garden(田) with the Divine(示). According to the Bible, Adam was this man, created in the image of God, to keep the Garden of Eden. He had a fellowship with God, thus glorifying and enjoying his Creator. This was true happiness.

During this reflection time of Lent, as we confess those "things we've done and those we've left undone" and as we look toward the cross as that place and point in time where we find forgiveness and reconciliation with God - may we be blessed...

Amidst it all, may the Divine (示) also walk with the one special person that is you(一口) in the garden of your heart (田).
May the Lord bless you (神 祝福 你).

Ashes

We attended an Ash Wednesday service this afternoon and I was struck by a couple of things. First, the call to confession and repentance. How often after reflection and self-examination do I leap forward into "fixing things" without the crucial step of confession before God? I don't really like to name my sin, I just like to fix it. But God knows I need confession and repentance. I need a place to lay it all out before Him and agree with Him as to what it really is.

Secondly, I was struck by the need to confess to one another...something I have no place for, but wonder if that is to my detriment. How serious was God when He said in the scriptures, "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed..."?

Lord, we confess to You and to one another that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

We have been deaf to Your call to serve as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved Your Holy Spirit. We confess to You, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness. The pride, hypocrisy, and impatience in our lives; our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work; our negligence in prayer and worship and our failure to commend the faith that is in us.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done. For our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, for all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, for our waste and pollution of Your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us.

AMEN

Patterns of Prayer

Do you ever notice patterns? I like patterns. I see them everywhere. From fabric, to fence-posts, to planks on the boardwalk, to repetitive details on the wall of a church, I see them and I enjoy them. They call to someplace deep in me reminding me of how life should be lived – in a rhythm, a pattern consistent with the heart of God. They also convict me of where I have created my own patterns to live by – where I have exchanged God’s design for my own.

This prayer journey that we embark on is all about patterns. Observing and paying attention to old patterns that need to be abandoned and taking up new patterns that we haven’t acted upon yet. It is about the pattern of asking and listening – not just one or the other. It is, if you wish, a time to ask God for His design concerning our praying, our eating (if you choose to fast), our generosity, our repentance, our reconciliation, our allegiances, and our broken world.

We will pray in the pattern of concentric circles – starting with a small inner circle and working our way out little by little each week.

Praying Lent:
Week 1/Circle 1 – We start with ourselves. Pray to see the patterns in our own personal lives that keep us from God. Ask God what rhythms He wants us to embrace and practice during this time. Confess… lay before Him the deep longings of our hearts…let Him know that we believe, but need help in our unbelief. Then…listen.

Living Lent: (some other crazy ideas)
Read Isaiah 58, Psalm 51
Place a mirror as a centerpiece on the dinner table this week – to remind us to look at our lives or place a container of water as a centerpiece to remind us to pray “Create in me, a clean heart, O Lord.”