I just started reading a book called Jesus: Made in America. It is a cultural history from the puritans to The Passion of the Christ. Now, I am not recommending the book...yet...because I just started it. However, the introduction gave me some food for thought. This excerpt especially resonated with me because of my interest in Celtic Christianity and for the Rhythm of the Christian Seasons. (By the way, the calendar is hot off the press for anyone who wants it!! Check it out here!)

Here is the quote:  "American evangelicals reflexively harbor suspicions of tradition.  In fact, most tend to toward being (rabidly) antitradition.  Consequently, the past is overlooked as a significant source of direction.  This leaves American evangelicals more vulnerable than most when it comes to cultural pressures and influences.  In the absence of tradition, we tend to make up a new one, one not tested by time and more or less constructed by individuals or by a limited community.  This anti-tradition animus arises from what has been labeled as historylessness." 

That "historylessness" intrigues me.  As I am exploring the idea of being Story-Formed, the question arises, what story will we listen to?  Will it be a thin story - based on snipets and pieces from culture mixed with biblical principles - or will it me the thicker, much harder to navigate, stories that integrate tradition, history, the whole community of the people of God and the Bible?  (I am not even sure we have a good plan for doing the latter.)

Anyway, I find my heart stirring and churning for deeper connections to the Scriptures, the traditions of those gone before me and the stories (histories) of the faith.  I want my children to be rooted in a Christianity that is both deep and broad - not just one appendage of it.  I want them to hear about who God's people are - the good, bad and the ugly - and how this Great God has interacted with and redeemed this planet's history.  I want to be an intentional story-teller.

I came across this poem:

This path
Once another people
walked this way.
Tread softly.
Feel the press of history
against your feet.
Muriel Mork

That is what I want:  for me, for my children, for my community of faith - to feel the press of history against our feet and to know we walk a path that is not untrodden.

Invitation to come and ... pause

Life has been quite full here lately - kids to school, photography, calendar project, writing, subbing sometimes, exercise, being a mom, being a friend, being a wife.  Yesterday I was reminded of another busy time in my life when God asked me to begin a counter-intuitive practice.

See, my first reaction in the midst of busyness is to make a list, get efficient, and go into "task mode" - using every moment for doing and completing the tasks at hand.  However, at a previous point in my life, the Lord allowed me to be exposed to the daily offices (fixed times during the day when we stop to pray).  Phyllis Tickle writes "the offices open to me four times a day and call me to remember Who owns time and why.  All that means really is that four times a day the Watchmaker and I have conversation about the clock and my place as a nano-second in it."

So in the midst of my busyness, God was asking me to pause - to stop what I was doing, trust that He could keep the earth spinning without my help, and come have conversation with Him.  It is counter-intuitive because it makes me stop when I think I should keep moving, it waits when I think I should be efficient, and it says "no" for a few moments to all those things screaming for my attention.

So yesterday, in the midst of my busyness, God offered the invitation again.  I looked up on my bulletin board above my computer and there was the Midday Prayer; an invitation to pause and give my work back over to the Creator.  It was not "magical" or emotional but it brought my heart back to be centered around a Person rather than a clock.

If you want to practice the rhythm of pausing, here is the midday prayer (from Northumbria Community in Ireland).  It is short, but it is a very much needed pause.

Midday Prayer –My Work

Take a moment to pause

Opening

Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.
Establish Thou the work of our hands;
establish Thou the work of our hands.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.  For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.  Forever and ever.  Amen

Declaration of faith

We believe and trust in God the Father Almighty.
We believe and trust in Jesus Christ His Son.
We believe and trust in the Holy Spirit.
We believe and trust in the Three in One.

Canticle

Teach us, dear Lord, to number our days;
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy,
that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us;
and establish Thou the work of our hands.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us;
and establish Thou the work of our hands, dear Lord.

Blessing

Let nothing disturb thee,
nothing affright thee;
all things are passing,
God never changeth!
Patient endurance attaineth to all things;
who God possesseth
in nothing is wanting;
alone God sufficeth.

+ In the name of the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen

My Children are Full of It!!

Evidently my kids have some great, funny things coming out of their mouths these days! Here is the latest:

(Mikaela speaking) Mom, I was reading my Bible the other night and I thought they made a mistake!
Me: What do you mean?
Mikaela: I was reading about Judas Iscariot but I always thought that his name was "Judas the scariest"!
Me: (on the floor laughing)!!!!

What can I say? The power of the written word...

Recently Heard or Seen at the Malouf Household...

Sometimes I just love the things my kids say!! They crack me up...and if you don't think it's funny, well, then I guess you just had to be there!


A good way to put shopping in perspective for competitive boys (by Luc):
"Are Nordstroms, Macy's and Sears all against each other?"

Just in case you thought the food pyramid wasn't having an impact (by Luc):
"Mom...dad forgot to buy the whole wheat eggs!!!" (On the occasion of David buying white eggs instead of brown)

Don't you just love email (recently forwarded by Mikaela):
"Friendship is like peeing your pants...everyone can see it, but only YOU can feel the true warmth."

Ahhh, life with children!