Continue reading »]]> I am headed out for another 24-hour “unplug” at Camp Otyokwah this morning.  I’m hoping to unplug from the day-to-day world so that I can refocus on God’s Upper Story.  I want to dedicate some time to be refreshed and be challenged by both the greatness and nearness of God.  My supplies will be my Bible, my iPad, and my guitar.

I’d be honored if you’d pray for me over the next day or so.  Pray for a prepared heart and a listening ear.  Pray for clarity and focus.  Pray for the refreshing that only He can bring and the vision only He has.  And please pray for my family while I’m out of town that Satan would be frustrated in his attempts to attack them.

Thanks.

Continue reading »]]> More from A Praying Life.  There is so much packed in here that I would encourage you to read it twice.  How do we live and pray in light of God’s Upper Story while we are living life in our Lower story?  We need to look for Him, wait for Him, and expect to find Him!

When God seems silent and our prayers go unanswered, the overwhelming temptation is to leave the story—to walk out of the desert and attempt to create a normal life. But when we persist in a spiritual vacuum, when we hang in there during ambiguity, we get to know God. In fact, that is how intimacy grows in all close relationships.

To live in our Father’s story, remember these three things:

1. Don’t demand that the story go your way. (In other words, surrender completely.)
2. Look for the Storyteller. Look for his hand, and then pray in light of what you are seeing. (In other words, develop an eye for Jesus.)
3. Stay in the story. Don’t shut down when it goes the wrong way.

To see the Storyteller we need to slow down our interior life and watch. We need to be imbedded in the Word to experience the Storyteller’s mind and pick up the cadence of his voice. We need to be alert for the story, for the Storyteller’s voice speaking into the details of our lives.

As we wait and pray, God weaves his story and creates a wonder. Instead of drifting between comedy (denial) and tragedy (reality), we have a relationship with the living God, who is intimately involved with the details of our worlds. We are learning to watch for the story to unfold, to wait for the wonder.

Now, on a lighter note, I just thought this was funny…

Continue reading »]]> Sometimes prayer is difficult because we refuse to see our inabilities to affect real, lasting change in our lives or the lives of people around us.  How much time do we spend trying to change our kids?  Parents?  Siblings?  Co-workers?  How often does it work out for us?  Not very often.  Until we become convinced of our own inability to change things, we won’t take prayer seriously.

Other times it is difficult because we forget that God may be need to change us more than He needs to change the person we are praying for.  Here is an example from A Praying Life of how this sometimes plays out when praying for our kids:

Until we become convinced we can’t change our child’s heart, we will not take prayer seriously. Consequently, repentance is often missing. When we see, for example, our son’s self-will, we usually don’t ask, How am I self-willed? or How am I angry? We may even want God’s help so we can dominate our son. We forget that God is not a genie but a person who wants to shape us in the image of his Son as much as he wants to answer our prayers.

Ouch.  Ever find yourself praying for change in others and discover it is YOU that needs to change?  Try this petition for yourself before you ask God to work on someone else:

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:12-14

Continue reading »]]> I hear (and understand) many reasons that prayer can be a difficult thing.  Here are a few:

• I’m too busy
• I’m too distracted
• It is too confusing
• It isn’t necessary
• It doesn’t work
• It makes me uncomfortable

Now, let me share a few quotes from A Praying Life that addresses some of these issues:

If you are not praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent are all you need in life.

Less mature Christians have little need to pray. When they look at their hearts (which they rarely do), they seldom see jealousy. They are barely aware of their impatience. Instead, they are frustrated by all the slow people they keep running into.

A praying life isn’t simply a morning prayer time; it is about slipping into prayer at odd hours of the day, not because we are disciplined but because we are in touch with our own poverty of spirit, realizing that we can’t even walk through a mall or our neighborhood without the help of the Spirit of Jesus.

Power in prayer comes from being in touch with your weakness. To teach us how to pray, Jesus told stories of weak people who knew they couldn’t do life on their own. The persistent widow and the friend at midnight get access, not because they are strong but because they are desperate. Learned desperation is at the heart of a praying life.

The first of these four quotes hits home with me the most.  I am often very confident and content with my time, money and talent.  Why in the world should I even ask God’s opinion when I’ve got everything under control?  Lord, have mercy on me!

Continue reading »]]> The topic of prayer has been on my mind a lot over the last 6-9 months.  What is it exactly?  Why do I do it?  Maybe more importantly, why don’t I do it more?  So, I went searching for a good resource on prayer, and stumbled on a good book with good insights into some of these questions: A Praying Life by Paul Miller

And so, over the next few weeks, I’m going to put out a few thoughts from Miller’s book.  This first post is from the book’s introduction…see if it resonates with you.

IT’S HARD TO PRAY. It’s hard enough for many of us to make an honest request to a friend we trust for something we truly need. But when the request gets labeled “praying” and the friend is termed “God,” things often get very tangled up. You’ve heard the contorted syntax, formulaic phrases, meaningless repetition, vague nonrequests, pious tones of voice, and air of confusion. If you talked to your friends and family that way, they’d think you’d lost your mind! But you’ve probably talked that way to God. You’ve known people who treat prayer like a rabbit’s foot for warding off bad luck and bringing goodies. You’ve known people who feel guilty because their quantity of prayer fails to meet some presumed standard. Maybe you are one of those people.

• Prayer—it tends to become a production and a problem.
• Life—it’s always a production and a problem. You cycle through your to-do list, your anxieties, distractions, pressures, pleasures, and irritants.
• God—he’s there, somewhere, sometimes.

Somehow those two problematic productions and the Lord of heaven and earth don’t all get on the same page very often. But prayer isn’t meant to be a production or a problem. And God is here, now. Prayer is meant to be the conversation where your life and your God meet.

Amen to that last sentence: Prayer is meant to be the conversation where your life and your God meet.

Continue reading »]]> We all have people that drain us, confuse us, irritate us and ignore us.  When we spend time with these folks we come away exhausted.  But there are also people that truly refresh us.  You know, they are the ones that you can’t wait to hang out with, the ones that get your mind and spirit back on track again.  Like a tall glass of sparkling ice water on a hot summer day, they truly, essentially refresh us.

One of those people in my life is my wife, Michele.  I love to walk and talk with her.  I love to work alongside her.  I just love to be with her.   She refreshes me.  There are other people in my life that refresh me.  I don’t know if they do it on purpose or not, but they do it.

Well, my year of walking through the Bible in chronological order has brought me to the book of Proverbs.  Mostly written by Solomon, the wisest man man ever to live, these little nuggets of wisdom were written to put us (and keep us) on a pathway alongside God.  I found this one the other day:

The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25 (NLT)

Here is my challenge for you today.  Think about those people in your life that refresh you.  It might even be helpful to write their names on a piece of paper.  Now, ask yourself this question: “How can I refresh them today?”  Could it be that God wants to use you to refresh them?  How could you do it?  How could you make this proverb come true for them today?

Continue reading »]]> I recently had a remarkable unplug at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.  It was a beautiful place, especially the sight awaiting me on my first hike.  At the top of a tall, grassy hill was a mound of stone topped with a simple cross, all surrounded by bushes and trees.  The warm day, blue sky and white clouds made it a picture-perfect scene.

About 30 feed away from the cross was a simple, black chair.  I sat in the chair for a few minutes, asking God to quiet my mind and heart and allow me to hear from Him.  When I looked up from that chair, my eyes went right to the cross.

For the next several minutes, all I could think of was my sin.  The ugly, tainted, humanity that Christ had died to save.  I thought of my greed, my pride, my fear, my love for the praise of men, my gluttony, my gossip, my laziness and my self-indulgence.  And all I wanted to do was cry and cry and cry…which is exactly what I did!

But then He reminded me that He has forgiven my sin!  Paid the price!  Redeemed me!  Done all the work of reconciliation!  He reminded me that His grace is sufficient!  He is my God, Master, Creator, Father and Friend!  And all I wanted to do was laugh and smile and praise His name…which is exactly what I did!

He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. Psalm 62:2 (NASB)

When was the last time you remembered and grieved over the cross of your salvation?  Or maybe you tend to get stuck there, forgetting that the cross is reason to celebrate your Rock and your Salvation!  I would encourage you today to remember the cross, both in grief and in praise to your Salvation!

Continue reading »]]> Well, my time with the Monks of Gethsemani last week was tremendous.  Outside of their 7-times-a-day liturgy, it is a place of total silence.  Spending two days without talking made several things apparent to me.  These weren’t new things, but things that are too easily ignored in the normal streams of life.

1. I talk way too much.
2. I like hearing myself talk way too much.
3. When I’m talking, I have a difficult time hearing God talk.
4. When I’m quiet, His still small voice is easier to hear…a LOT easier.

Imagine spending hours and hours in His creation and among His people…without saying a word.  If you can’t imagine it, I would encourage you to ask yourself:

What is so attractive about my own voice?  Why is talking so important to me?  Why can’t I just be quiet and let God do all the talking for a change?

Weren’t we made to spend uninterrupted time with our heavenly Father?  Weren’t we designed to both talk to Him and listen to Him?  It was a little unnerving at first, but soon I began to hear from Him in some exciting ways.  More on that in a future post…

For now, many of you asked to see pictures of this place.  I don’t have many pictures of the inside of the monastery, but here are a few of the surrounding 1500 acres.  What a beautiful, quiet place.

Continue reading »]]> I’m leaving this morning for The Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist Kentucky.  Once again, my hope is to “unplug” from the world for a couple of days and seek the Lord’s face.  My main supplies will be my Bible, Kindle, journal and guitar.  I’ll also be bringing a church directory with me to pray through while I’m there. 

Though I hope to come away with some direction from God for the coming year, my bigger hope is to simply come away closer to the One that saves me and keeps me. 

God only knows where He’ll bring me in His Word, but my starting point will be Psalm 62:

¹ I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. ² He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.

³ So many enemies against one man— all of them trying to kill me. To them I’m just a broken-down wall or a tottering fence. ⁴ They plan to topple me from my high position. They delight in telling lies about me. They praise me to my face but curse me in their hearts. 

⁵ Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. ⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. ⁷ My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. ⁸ O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.

⁹ Common people are as worthless as a puff of wind, and the powerful are not what they appear to be. If you weigh them on the scales, together they are lighter than a breath of air.

¹⁰ Don’t make your living by extortion or put your hope in stealing. And if your wealth increases, don’t make it the center of your life.

¹¹ God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you; ¹² unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. Psalm 62:1-12 (NLT)

I would greatly appreciate your prayers for my family while I’m away, for safe travel, and that I would truly be refreshed in the presence of God!