It Me O Lord Standing in the Need of Prayer

 

Yesterday I invited you to ponder your understanding of prayer.  Today, I want you to conjure in your mind a favorite place where you prayed.

For extra credit, you could post a picture!

For me, one of the sacred sites of prayer growing up was at the camp in Iowa, Pilgrim Center, where we had an outdoor chapel.  The benches were hewed from oak and cedar trees.  The pulpit was made with rough bark.  You looked out over a lake.  Across the water, on a hill stood an old, rugged cross.  The mosquitoes on an Iowa summer evening at sunset thought it was a feeding fest when we gather for vespers.  In that sacred setting prayer wasn’t about words I spoke to God; prayer was an experience and encounter with the Holy.  We would sing the camp song, Pass It On, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.”  Or Kum-ba-yah. We would pray the Lord’s Prayer with the birds nesting in the trees chirping and chiming in with their song.  We would laugh, cry, and open our whole lives to God.  It was prayer from beginning to end.

Today, I find holy ground around our church campus.  The Sanctuary, Chapel, and Memorial Garden make me feel like Moses in Exodus 3, calling me to take off my shoes for I am on holy ground.  The labyrinth and Wendling Terrace are becoming sacred as we gather each Sunday to worship in those places and your presence is evoking and provoking and blessing these spaces. 

As Elizabeth Barrett Browning says, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries…”

So now, maybe you want to post a picture of an ordinary plot of grass in your backyard.  Or a common chair in your living room.  Or the kitchen table. 

What makes holy ground holy is that you recognize and realize God meets you there, even amid unwashed breakfast cereal bowls and spilled drops of coffee.  All of earth is alive with heaven might be a prayer posture for you and me this day and this week.

Prayer: Help these become more than words I read, but a way I live this week, O God.  Amen.