Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

From the rising of the sun...to the going down of the same,

Let this be the day we immerse ourselves in the fullness of God's presence.

God's presence stirring around us.

God's presence swirling within us.

God's presence beyond us, beckoning us.

God's presence beside us, encouraging and even cajoling. 

God's presence behind, nudging and supporting.

God's presence never fully known, but still reminding us that we are known.

Known to the smallest cell in our body.

The deep in us calls to the deep within God.

Let each moment this day be saturated and sacred in the sacred.

Let that be our prayer and our experience.

Amen

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

This amazing day...with leaping lizards.

This amazing day...with our one precious wild life.

This amazing day...with celebrating laughter and joy.

This amazing day...with mending some brokenness.

This amazing day...with its ordinariness.

This amazing day...with its extra-ordinariness.

This amazing day...for this breath.

For this tree waving its branches.

For this bowl of bran flakes, for this peanut butter sandwich, for this bowl of soup.

For this sky above, earth below and me in-between.

The vastness and particular moment.

For this day...to love and be loved.

To risk and fail.

To step out and succeed.

To stay put and be content.

For all that is in this one amazing moment.

As Martin Luther said, "If we could understand but one grain of wheat, we would die of wonder."

For the unknowing and known

For the mystery and certainty.

For the mess...for this amazing day.

Amen

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

The words of the hymns wash over me:

I've got peace like a river...

It is well with my soul...

Precious Lord take my hand...

This little light of mine...

Blessed be the tie that binds us to each other.

The words of the hymns stir within me:

Amazing grace is the sweetest sound,

there is a sweet sweet spirit in this place, (even with its imperfections),

in this very room there is quite enough love, peace, and power,

Take my life and let it be,

Take this moment and this day,

To be grounded in praise and the very promise of God.

To be lost in wonder and love.

For this day and for this chance to let my soul sing with all that is,

Let that prayer not sit within me, but find expression in my words, actions, and interactions.

Amen.

Lent: Intentional and Prayerful

Intentional ~ thoughtful, purposeful.

Prayerful ~ awake to God here in this space.

Taken together, two parts of the same coin.

To be prayerful means that we need to move in meaningful ways.

To move in meaningful ways might find its fullest expression through prayer.

To be open here,

to trust that tomorrow is in God's hands.

To be open to here,

to trust we don't need to recreate yesterday...no matter how beautiful, amazing it was.

Today,

This moment.

This breath,

This beat of your heart.

This amazing, full of wonder moment.

Open to all it is...and is not.

Open to seeing its beauty...and its brokenness.

Open to the mystery...and the knowing.

What is around you?

What is missing?

What do you know?

What don't you know?

How might God be moving in that?

This might open us in prayerful and intentional and AMAZING ways.

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

Here might be one way to be prayerful and intentional today.

Here might be a way to wake up to the Living, Breathing, Still Creating God.

Here not with formulas or words.

Here not with practices or patterns.

But here...right where you are in this very moment.

Reading this on an elevator,

Or easy chair,

Or coffee shop,

Or wherever you are.

Look up.

Look away from the screen.

Look around.

Look away from the glow; to see the glow of the world.

The glow of the faces passing by...

The flow of the world alive with God's presence.

The blow of a breeze.

Look up.

For the center of God is everyone, and the end of God no where.

For the embrace of God is huge and felt in the smallest ways.

For the vast universe is alive with God even in our ant-like place where we are.

Look up,

Look around,

Open.

Maybe that is the first movement of prayer.

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

Everyone knows...

Fold hands, bow heads.

Everyone knows...

Praise, petition, plea, 

Concerns, celebrations,

As though we were cajoling God...

And perhaps we whisper our prayers because Anne Dillard was right that worry we might wake the slumbering God.

Everyone knows the formula.

As though prayer was caught, rather than taught.

As though prayer was absorbed by osmosis.

So, why did Jesus' closest friends ask about prayer?

Surely, they had heard prayers spoken by rabbis, religious leaders.

Surely, they had heard their own parents pray prayers every Sabbath.

If everyone knows the formula,

what was it about Jesus' prayers that awoke a new kind of curiosity, longing, like the deer longing for water that the psalmist sings about?

Maybe no one knows the formula.

Maybe we all stumble and stammer.

Maybe we all strain and grasp for words.

Maybe prayer is less about eloquence.

More about experiencing the holy that is.

Less about knowing,

More about being known!

May it be so for each of us each day this week.

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

Intentionally, thoughtfully, prayerfully.

All sound so good,

But how?

How when there are clothes to be ironed, dinners to be cooked, and sermons to be written?

How when the world keeps saying, "What did you do today?"

How when the values seem to suggest the only proper response to, "How are you."

Is a hurriedly spoken, "Busy."

Intentionally, thoughtfully, prayerfully.

How to break into a new rhythm, a new groove, a new way?

How to move about this world without concern for the items crossed off my list,

Instead with attention to the people who cross my path.

Intentionally, thoughtfully, prayerfully.

Maybe not all at once.

Maybe slowly.

Maybe practicing day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

This might be the day rather than a rat race,

I decide to move at a sloth's pace.

And discover I can sense and experience and feel

Traces of God's grace, rather than a sacred blur.

Amen. 

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

A sloth moves slowly on a branch,

I want mesmerized.

At first I wonder 

How can this creature stand it.

A snail could come whizzing past,

And the sloth would say, "Slow down."

In a world where life is supposed to move 

At a frenzied pace,

Fast pace,

Wake up, feet hit the ground, already behind pace.

At a blur pace.

How can this part of God's good creation proceed at that pace?

I would crawl out of my skin.

Slowly, as a I watch, I start to wonder if I am the one who is mistaken.

A sloth is not a creature to be pitied, but praised.

Not a creature to be associated with a sin,

But one who might show us another way to life.

A sloth moves intentionally...

Aware, awake to what is around.

A sloth moves intentionally...

What is the next right move.

Not five moves down the road.

But trusting that to move there is what is right.

Once there, we might know what the next right move is after that.

But only...only once we have arrived.

A sloth knows how to be here...rather than there.

A sloth knows how to be intentional.

I pray this Lent, I might learn from that wisdom.

Amen.   

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

Today is my birthday..

When I was a kid that meant cupcakes for my class...

When I was a teenager it meant hanging out with friends...

When I was in college it was a good "reason" to take a break from class.

Now, birthdays mean a little cake, a few presents, and mostly a chance to reflect.

Look back at the forty-one years, a span on earth.

Short by many comparisons.

Long when compared to those even a few centuries ago.

Forty-one years, many spent in Iowa.

Then, one birthday over dinner with friends I met my wife...

Best gift ever!

Then, one birthday we prepared for our first child...

Then, another birthday we prepared for our second...

Then, another...another...another.

They pile up faster than we wish or want.

We celebrate nevertheless...perhaps with a small cupcake, few friends, and a short break.

Might be the best way to celebrate today.

The small, sacred ways God is moving.

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

March...

A month

A motion

A notion that we are moving forward.

In high school march meant lines and formations in the band.

In college March meant madness of basketball games.

Now March means the beginning of a third month of the new year.

Easter approaching...

Calm plotting resurrection and new life.

March means the first, few, faint signs of life.

Fragile.

Cold still lingering.

And then...

Warmth,...sunlight...spring springing forth slowly wrapping around us.

What is marching around your life right now?

where are you now?

where would you like to go?

is this the time to march forth?

Or to let the presence of God march forth in your life?

May the grace of God guide you this day...and throughout these marching days.

Lent Prayerful and Intentional

Maybe when life is interrupted and disrupted there can be a new creation.

A new idea that springs forth like a spout poking its fragile stalk out of the wet soil.

Maybe the new creation is found in the chaos.

Chaos was how God began to craft and create all that is.

Chaos is still where creativity takes shape.

A stroke of paint that was misplaced on the canvas...

Suddenly takes the art in a new direction.

A piece of clay that was meant to be a bird...

Suddenly becomes a different shape that is even more beautiful.

An idea...prayer practice...hymn...poem...class...sermon...service...relationship...day

You get it.

Just because there is an interruption and disruption,

doesn't mean it is a cause to dismay and just head for the freezer to take care of our disappointment with spoonfuls of ice cream.

Sometimes the beauty...the holiness is in the chaos.

That wisdom was woven into our lives from the beginning.

Still is true for us today...

Especially today when things don't go according to plan.

Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

Leap day...

A day that is unexpected, unplanned, usual.

Twenty-eight days most years.

Then, every fourth year, another day greets us at the end of February.

Twenty four hours..

Pure gift.

Interrupted...

Disrupted...

In the best sense of those words.

What will you do with this one precious day?

This gift received only every four years?

Will you enter into it as usual?

Or will you leap into it?

Will you have the same meals, same routines?

Or will you let your spirit leap in new ways?

Will you go about this as though the calendar could read February 28th or March 1?

Or maybe we can leap around, dance around, and sing aloud?

Maybe this leap day will interrupt us

Disrupt us..

in the best ways.

That might open us to the holy, sacred leaping in our midst even here and now.

Lent prayerful and intentional

There is a disruption when life is interrupted.  We have carefully made plans...

Like posting to my blog everyday.

Like always being joyful this Lent.

I wanted to make it through Lent following my best laid plans...

Unlike those New Years Resolutions.

Then life interrupts.

Life disrupts.

Like takes an unplanned exit ramp.

What then??

What happens when my plans go sideways...

without even asking permission?

What happens when my to-do lists gets added to..

without even asking permission?

What happens when my neat, tidy expectations are suddenly askew,

again...without asking permission?

What then?

O God...

O right, Lent isn't about me.

Lent isn't some marathon I run totally reliant on the unholy Trinity of,

Me...Myself...and I

Lent is about God.

Relying on God.

Totally,

Fully,

Even when our plans are interrupted and disrupted...

Or especially when interrupted and disrupted.

Then, maybe I might find a new understand of Lent.

Lent 5: Intentional and Prayerful

Tuesdays are always tough for me...

The day is a prayer of confession just waiting to be written.

When the melody of the music and the meaningfulness of worship starts to fade slowly away.

Tuesdays are tough for me...

So much lingering that did not get done yesterday...

So many days until a day of rest...

So many lines still on the "To-do" list.

Until the wisdom of Martin Luther rings in my ear...

"I am so busy today...I MUST pray more."

Until the wisdom of Barbara Brown Taylor beckons me to another frame...

"Sabbath is permission to once a week be good for nothing."

Until the wisdom of faith reminds me...

"Salvation is not up to me...God's love is not earned...but simply is."

So meld me, mold me, fill me, and move through me to sense that this is the day You have made,

Even if it is a tough Tuesday.

Lent 4: Intentional and Prayerful

Another week dawns around us from our Monday morning cup of coffee...

We scan our calendar along with the headlines...

We munch on manna in the form of Shredded Wheat or Corn Flakes...

Wondering what awaits us in the coming days as a hymn of yesterday's service still rumbles around our head causes us to hum along.

What awaits us in the unknowingness of this week?

What awaits us as we get dressed and set out?

What awaits us as we throw ourselves into our "To-do" lists?

We will see You, O God, at the grocery store,

Or only that annoying neighbor who wants to chat about the pizza in our cart.

We will see You, O God, as we volunteer,

Or only the blur of faces, names You know and call beloved.

We will see You, O God, in traffic,

Or only that person speeding past with the angry look and the less-than-Christian wave.

Another week dawns around us, O God,

And we long to sense, to be open, to be guided by a grace to see more than just a trace...

We long to see You.

Open our eyes, hearts, and this day to You.

Lent 3: Intentional and Prayerful

Valentine's Day and Lent...what an odd combination.
The poets shout out, wax eloquent about love...
The Hallmark store and florists shout out, don't forget...
The sappy sentimentalists in us all is stirred, although some still frown to keep that feeling down.

Valentine's Day and Lent...what a strange concoction, yet strangely intertwined.
They both want our intention and attention.
They both ask for us to be thoughtful and caring.
They both invite us to be vulnerable.
They both are about love.

While the love of one is sugar or chocolate coated...Your love, O God, comes in other ways.
Lasting ways.
Ways not contained by foil containers or shaped as heart.

Yet, Your love is found in flesh...in breathe...in laughter and wisdom and grace extended to all in the form of One You called beloved, so that we might know we are beloved by You.

So enter into our lives this Valentine's Day with Your extravagant, expressive, elastic, ever-lasting love.
And let us rest in Your presence intentionally and prayerfully and with a smile that is more than a sugar-high.
But a hope for what is and what will be.

Lent 2: Intentional and Prayerful

So here we sit, O God.

Waiting, wondering...

Where is our burning bush?

Where is our descending dove?

You've done it before.

But here we sit.

Here we sit as an ant cross on our hand,

Distracting us from our prayerful focus.

It's tiny feet tickling our flesh.

We are just about to flick that pesky insect away...

When wait...

What if, as we sit, this ant is

Our burning bush...

      Our descending dove....

             A trace of Your grace here and now.

What if, as we sit, this ant tickling our flesh is an invitation

To laugh

     To sense that You are all around

           To know that You are here.

So here we sit, O God.

With You

And an ant.

Lent 1: Intentional and Prayerful

God is always exciting to set out on a journey...

The thrill of something new, different, to leave behind all our worries and troubles and dirty dishes in the sink.

We look to the excitement of the destination;

The exotic...

The new...

The place where no problems can find us.

But...there is always a but...

The plane is delayed...

The luggage is lost...

Those problems we thought we'd left at home suddenly show up and want to sit right next to us.

Help us as we embark on the season of Lent to view these forty days not as an escape from what is.

Help us be open to the truths we embody,

Those we like and want to share...

And those we prefer would stay quiet in the corner.

We are wonderfully, wholly, and holy made.

You are the ground and grace of our being.

In you we can be intentional, prayerful, and transformed with each step.

Take our hand, precious Lord...

Lend us on...help us stand today and for the forty days to come.

Amen.

Ash Wednesday

Today is the start of Lent, forty days (not including Sundays) that are set apart and seen as an intentional/prayerful/awaken to God time.  I crave Lent, which may sound like an odd statement.  Some view Lent as a microcosm of where religion veered off-course.  Lent is about sacrifice in a world that constantly preaches, "You deserve it YOUR way, right now."  Lent is about quiet in a world that rewards the loudest voices and most re-tweets.  Lent is about intentionality in a world that is prefers snap judgments and spontaneous decisions...after all why else put all that stuff near the cash register.  Lent is a slow, savory pace in a microwave world.  Lent is about as counter-cultural as it gets...because Lent is about Jesus.  

Jesus who preached loving enemies and peace.  Jesus who lived reaching out to people on the fringe rather than exploiting them.  Jesus who faced death on a cross not as something to be avoided but as a reality for walking on this earth.  Yet, in order to immerse ourselves in Lent, we need to be willing to take apart, explore, and expose some of the theology that usually is caught up in these season.  Lent is about calmly plotting the resurrection of life...not only Jesus' life...but all life and the world God so loves.  In order to frame that, the shadow of the cross might need to be re-imagined.  For me, the cross is not God sacrificing God's only son.  That has never made much sense to me.  How in the world could we "earn" God's love back by killing God's son?  How could Good Friday be considered a "win" on our part?  How limiting is it to think that the only rationale for Jesus' death on a cross is that it was the "only way" God could start loving us again?  I just shake my head.

Instead, for me, the cross shines a light on the myth of redemptive violence.  For me, the cross is God explicitly saying to us that God knows the suffering of this world intimately.  One of the most painful seasons is grief, death of someone we love.  God enters into that space, just as God was willing, through Moses, to enter into the suffering of the overworked, scarcity of God's people in Egypt.  God is always willing to be among the vulnerable, lost, lonely, left out, and pushed to the fringes.  

So, if what we are building toward is not about substitution atonement or even Jesus dying for my sins.  If what we are building toward is a proclamation of God's willingness to suffer and self-giving even in the face of death....that changes everything.  That makes Lent different...even as some of the practices might seem the same.

Lent calls me to shine a light on my suffering...trusting that truth that pain that is not processed is passed along.

Lent calls me to be vulnerable...prayerful...honest in my relationship with God.

Lent calls me to accept that grace and love are unconditional...even before Good Friday happened.

Yet...practices like fasting...giving up a favorite food...prayer every day...silence...lighting candles...spending time serving others...worship...communion...community...caring...working for justice...and on and on can still be meaningful especially if Lent is re-framed.  

I invite you this Lent to re-frame your faith.  To take out, touch up the painting of faith we have been handed adding your creative touches to the mystery of God's love...or pick out a new way to look at what it means to be in a life-giving, life-changing relationship with God.

I encourage you today to listen to where you sense God nudging you.  It might not be necessarily giving something up...maybe it is something joy-filled you've always wanted to try.  

In the end, Lent is a season of being intentional and prayerful.  At the cross roads of those two words, what is being awoken within you to connect with God in meaningful ways?  Go that way...and I believe there is more than a trace of God's grace to be found.

Blessings ~   

The Ups and Downs of Life

Click here to read Isaiah 38

Click here to read Isaiah 39

Hezekiah falls ill.  Isaiah shows up and like all good friends predicts Hezekiah's demise.  Talk about needing a lesson in bedside manners!  "Hi Hezekiah, you look awful!  I guess this is the end."  Gee whiz, with friends like that, who needs Babylon breathing down your neck threatening to over throw your kingdom.  Hezekiah turned away from the gloom and doom of Isaiah (I dare say I would do the same), offered a prayer to God, and wept bitterly.  God heard the prayer, saw Hezekiah's honest grief, and changed God's mind.  

Did you catch that?  God changed God's mind.  There is a strand within Christian theology that says everything is pre-planned or predestined/pre-ordained.  I don't know what those who hold onto that line of thought do with this passage.  It is almost as if Hezekiah's repentance (see last post) caused God to repent/turn around.  God changed God's mind within Genesis a number of times.  God initially tells Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit or they will die.  Only to just kick them out of the garden after they ate the fruit...a good lesson for all parents about trying to enforce the most extreme punishment.  God changed God's mind about the flood when God smelled the sacrifice Noah made, realizing that even a flood would not fully solve the problem with human brokenness.  

Of course, it really should not surprise us too much that God can change God's mind.  After all, that is what being in a relationship is all about.  It is not much of a relationship if you have no impact on the other person and the other person has an impact upon you.    

Hezekiah is saved and in the very next chapter he is putting on an open house for the Babylonians.  "Come on in fellas!  Let me show you around.  Here is where I keep the gold.  Here is where I keep all my secret plans.  Go ahead.  I am feeling great since my near-death experience."  And somewhere God boinked God's head.

I am sure I have my Hezekiah-moments too.  Just when things turn on a dime, go great, and the very next day my decisions act as if yesterday was a million years ago.  How frequently we forget, sometimes in the blink of an eye.

Lent asks us to be honest about those places where our relationship with God is on rocky ground.  Where are those places where we cry out to God, sense God's presence, only in the next moment to break God's heart?  That is not an easy question. But at the heart of Lent is the truth of denial by Peter, betrayal by Judas, and the desertion by everyone else.  And yet, God would not allow that brokenness to be the last word.  Easter brings a joy that surges and stirs our soul.  When that is the promise that awaits us at the end of the 40 days, we can be honest about the rocky ground in our life because the trace of God's grace that rises with the sun on Easter morning truly is good news.

Blessings and peace!