Thanks, Eva, for passing this along...
I've been reading the book "The Power Of A Positive Mom" and there was a paragraph that I feel related to a recent RST:
"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," Hebrews 12:1-2 says. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." As we keep our eyes focused on the goal of serving Christ and becoming more like him, we are less distracted in our race by the cares, frustrations, and temptations of the world. Having Jesus as our first and foremost goal keeps us on the right track!
Sounds vaguely familiar, right? In both the Old and New Testaments God says to us, "Trust me when I tell you that you want me on the throne of your life; any other 'god' you put there--person, possession, whatever--will quickly turn into a tyrant and enslave you. But put me on the throne of your life, set your concerns aside and make knowing me and my way your top priority, and you'll find peace, and all your needs taken care of."
(It's all right there, in Exodus 20 and Matthew 22--not to mention Matthew 5-7 but especially 6:33). So thanks again for the reminder, Eva--and Y'all have been prayed for today...
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Yancey On Prayer And Perspective (Conclusion)
Hey, Y'all,
Back from a couple of days in NAF El Centro ("The Pearl of the Desert"--I just don't get tired of that slightly ironic moniker). The Blue Angels were also at their part-time home so it was cool to watch (and hear) them practice overhead, in addition to the usual large volume of other aircraft getting their training in 24/7 --- Marine Hercs (C-130s and variants), F-18s (Hornets and SuperHornets), T-45 Goshawks, MV-22 Ospreys, AV-8B Harriers, helos of various types/variants (-60s and -46s and -53s), well, you get the picture: my not-so-inner aero-geek was in heaven--too bad pictures are a no-no without prior authorization (memo to self for next time...). Anyway, it was a good if busy couple of days. Here's another thought of Yancey's...
How odd that prayer seems foolish to many people who base their lives on media trends, superstition, instinct, social pressures, even hormones or astrology or other similarly steady bases.
For most of us, much of the time, prayer brings no certain confirmation that we have been heard. We pray in faith that our words somehow cross a bridge between visible and invisible worlds, penetrating a reality of which we have no proof. Faith.
It occurs to me, thinking about prayer, that most of the time I get the direction wrong. I start downstream with my own concerns and bring them to God, as if God did not already know them. I plead with God, as if hoping to change God's mind and overcome some divine reluctance. I realize I should start upstream where the flow begins. When I shift direction I realize that God already cares about my concerns--my uncle's cancer, world peace, a broken family, unpaid bills--more than I do. I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility for what happens on earth, and then ask what part I can play in God's work on earth. With this new starting point for prayer, my perceptions change. I look at nature and see, not only blue sky and flowers and birds, but the signature of a grand artist.
I need the corrective vision of prayer because all day long I will lose sight of God's perspective. Prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God's.
You've been prayed for today...
Back from a couple of days in NAF El Centro ("The Pearl of the Desert"--I just don't get tired of that slightly ironic moniker). The Blue Angels were also at their part-time home so it was cool to watch (and hear) them practice overhead, in addition to the usual large volume of other aircraft getting their training in 24/7 --- Marine Hercs (C-130s and variants), F-18s (Hornets and SuperHornets), T-45 Goshawks, MV-22 Ospreys, AV-8B Harriers, helos of various types/variants (-60s and -46s and -53s), well, you get the picture: my not-so-inner aero-geek was in heaven--too bad pictures are a no-no without prior authorization (memo to self for next time...). Anyway, it was a good if busy couple of days. Here's another thought of Yancey's...
How odd that prayer seems foolish to many people who base their lives on media trends, superstition, instinct, social pressures, even hormones or astrology or other similarly steady bases.
For most of us, much of the time, prayer brings no certain confirmation that we have been heard. We pray in faith that our words somehow cross a bridge between visible and invisible worlds, penetrating a reality of which we have no proof. Faith.
It occurs to me, thinking about prayer, that most of the time I get the direction wrong. I start downstream with my own concerns and bring them to God, as if God did not already know them. I plead with God, as if hoping to change God's mind and overcome some divine reluctance. I realize I should start upstream where the flow begins. When I shift direction I realize that God already cares about my concerns--my uncle's cancer, world peace, a broken family, unpaid bills--more than I do. I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility for what happens on earth, and then ask what part I can play in God's work on earth. With this new starting point for prayer, my perceptions change. I look at nature and see, not only blue sky and flowers and birds, but the signature of a grand artist.
I need the corrective vision of prayer because all day long I will lose sight of God's perspective. Prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God's.
You've been prayed for today...
Monday, February 19, 2007
Yancey On Prayer And Perspective (cont'd)
Hey, Y'all,
Wow, tempus fugit again (yes, that's "time flies" in Latin--told you I'm in touch with my inner geek here of late :-). Crazy busy last week but had a lot of fun running around this weekend with my folks in town, now I'm off to El Centro tomorrow @ 0430 for a couple of days (won't get home 'til 2200 Wed night after class--so the craziness continues unabated :-). However, I wanted to make sure I got this RST out tonight 'cause it's good stuff--it's a continuation of the "perspective" thought post-before-last...
Prayer helps correct myopia, calling to mind a perspective I daily forget. I keep reversing roles, thinking of ways in which God should serve me, rather than vice versa. As God unsubtly reminded Job, The Lord of the universe has many things to manage, and in the midst of my self-pity I would to well to contemplate for a moment God's point of view.
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?
Tell me if you understand.
Who marked off it's dimensions?
Surely you know!"
Prayer raises my sight beyond the petty or even--as in Job's case--dire circumstances of my daily life to afford a glimpse of that lofty and broad perspective. I realize my tininess and God's vastness, and the true relation of the two. In God's presence I feel small because I am small.
When, after shrugging aside all his caustic theological queries, God enlightened hapless Job, the man crumbled. In effect, Job said, "I'm sorry...I had no idea what I was asking." Job did not receive a single answer to his probing questions--a fact that no longer seemed to matter.
"Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?" God asks.
"Surely, I spoke of things I did not understand,
of things too wonderful for me to know," says Job.
Kicking and screaming all the way, I'm still learning the lesson of Job. God needs no reminding of the nature of reality--but I do.
You've been prayed for today...
Wow, tempus fugit again (yes, that's "time flies" in Latin--told you I'm in touch with my inner geek here of late :-). Crazy busy last week but had a lot of fun running around this weekend with my folks in town, now I'm off to El Centro tomorrow @ 0430 for a couple of days (won't get home 'til 2200 Wed night after class--so the craziness continues unabated :-). However, I wanted to make sure I got this RST out tonight 'cause it's good stuff--it's a continuation of the "perspective" thought post-before-last...
Prayer helps correct myopia, calling to mind a perspective I daily forget. I keep reversing roles, thinking of ways in which God should serve me, rather than vice versa. As God unsubtly reminded Job, The Lord of the universe has many things to manage, and in the midst of my self-pity I would to well to contemplate for a moment God's point of view.
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?
Tell me if you understand.
Who marked off it's dimensions?
Surely you know!"
Prayer raises my sight beyond the petty or even--as in Job's case--dire circumstances of my daily life to afford a glimpse of that lofty and broad perspective. I realize my tininess and God's vastness, and the true relation of the two. In God's presence I feel small because I am small.
When, after shrugging aside all his caustic theological queries, God enlightened hapless Job, the man crumbled. In effect, Job said, "I'm sorry...I had no idea what I was asking." Job did not receive a single answer to his probing questions--a fact that no longer seemed to matter.
"Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?" God asks.
"Surely, I spoke of things I did not understand,
of things too wonderful for me to know," says Job.
Kicking and screaming all the way, I'm still learning the lesson of Job. God needs no reminding of the nature of reality--but I do.
You've been prayed for today...
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Love Is...
Thanks, Bud, for this excellent reminder that real love is not what Hollywood says it is (and what society has been conditioned to believe). The RST is based on 1 Corinthians 13, and it's also interesting to read it another way--keeping in mind that scripture says that God is love and that people around us will know that we are His followers because of our loving attitude...so (going back to my geek roots again :-), if A=B and B=C, then A=C, so wherever you read "Love" you can insert "God" (and by extension we should be able to insert "I" or "Me" if in fact we are who we claim to be--hmmmm...and yikes sometimes, huh? :-).
Love is...
Slow to suspect...quick to trust.
Slow to condemn...quick to justify.
Slow to offend...quick to defend.
Slow to expose...quick to shield.
Slow to reprimand...quick to forbear.
Slow to belittle...quick to appreciate.
Slow to demand...quick to give.
Slow to provoke...quick to soothe.
Slow to hinder... quick to help.
Slow to resent...quick to forgive.
Love is patient, and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice,
but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful,
and endures through every circumstance.
Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--
and the greatest of these is love.
You've been prayed for today...
Love is...
Slow to suspect...quick to trust.
Slow to condemn...quick to justify.
Slow to offend...quick to defend.
Slow to expose...quick to shield.
Slow to reprimand...quick to forbear.
Slow to belittle...quick to appreciate.
Slow to demand...quick to give.
Slow to provoke...quick to soothe.
Slow to hinder... quick to help.
Slow to resent...quick to forgive.
Love is patient, and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice,
but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful,
and endures through every circumstance.
Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--
and the greatest of these is love.
You've been prayed for today...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Yancey On Prayer and Perspective
Hey, Y'all,
Today's RST is again based on Yancey's book on prayer--read on, enjoy, and ponder.
Every now and then I get a glimmer of my true state: a helpless, tiny, two-legged creature perched on the skin of a molten planet. Here's some perspective: if the Milky Way galaxy were the size of the continent of North America, our entire solar system would fit in a coffee cup. Yet this vast neighborhood of our sun (it would take over 15 hours for a radio message traveling at the speed of light to reach Pluto at its edge)--this solar system, which is in fact smaller than a cup of coffee--fits along with several hundred billion other such stars and their planets in the Milky Way, which itself is one of perhaps 100 billion such galaxies in the universe.
No wonder the Psalmist--with but a fraction of our understanding of our true puniness--exclaimed "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" An excellent question, as well as a reminder of a point of view I easily forget.
To explore the mystery of prayer I begin here, recalling the vantage I get from the summit of a mountain looking down or from an observatory looking up. Each provides a mere sliver of a glimpse of reality as God sees it. Like a flash of lightning at night, prayer exposes for a millisecond what I would prefer to ignore: my own true state of fragility and dependence. Undone tasks ever accumulating, family and friends and other relationships, temptations and questions, plans for the future, regrets about the past--all of these things I bring into that larger reality, God's sphere, where I find them curiously upended.
You've been prayed for today...
Today's RST is again based on Yancey's book on prayer--read on, enjoy, and ponder.
Every now and then I get a glimmer of my true state: a helpless, tiny, two-legged creature perched on the skin of a molten planet. Here's some perspective: if the Milky Way galaxy were the size of the continent of North America, our entire solar system would fit in a coffee cup. Yet this vast neighborhood of our sun (it would take over 15 hours for a radio message traveling at the speed of light to reach Pluto at its edge)--this solar system, which is in fact smaller than a cup of coffee--fits along with several hundred billion other such stars and their planets in the Milky Way, which itself is one of perhaps 100 billion such galaxies in the universe.
No wonder the Psalmist--with but a fraction of our understanding of our true puniness--exclaimed "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" An excellent question, as well as a reminder of a point of view I easily forget.
To explore the mystery of prayer I begin here, recalling the vantage I get from the summit of a mountain looking down or from an observatory looking up. Each provides a mere sliver of a glimpse of reality as God sees it. Like a flash of lightning at night, prayer exposes for a millisecond what I would prefer to ignore: my own true state of fragility and dependence. Undone tasks ever accumulating, family and friends and other relationships, temptations and questions, plans for the future, regrets about the past--all of these things I bring into that larger reality, God's sphere, where I find them curiously upended.
You've been prayed for today...
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Reply: Doing It On My Own...What Was I Thinking?
Hey, Y'all,
Today's RST is in two parts, the first is a response to our last posting, and the second is a quick quote from Yancey's book on prayer to get us set for tomorrow's...
"[Philippians 4 is] probably my 'most favored' chapter in the whole Good Book at this point. If we simply lived by the principles Paul points out in this one chapter alone, I'd venture to say we'd ALL be doing okay...that's easier said than done it seems. I guess that's what Paul meant by having to die every day, but sometimes I find myself dying just getting there! Thank goodness He provides that 'all in all' solution cause Lord knows I fall shorter and shorter of the mark each day I continue to attempt moving the ball forward on my own."
Thanks, Ronnie, and yeah, I know what you mean. Especially loved your "If we simply lived by the principles..." --- ahhh, if it only were in fact a simple thing, but no, I (and here I'm sure it's just me) I just keep taking the wheel, then getting anxious about things I have little-to-no control over, not rejoicing much, frequently forgetting to say "thank you" for the vast quantity of blessings I have received and instead focusing of course on the little bit I don't have...kind of makes it difficult to have that promised peace that transcends understanding (and it also bears reitrating that anything I pay attention to or focus on that is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, or praiseworthy does nothing helpful to my relationship with the God of peace)...brilliant!
Here's the quote--I leave it to you to figure our how it's related to our line of thinking today:
"We must stop setting our sights by the light of each passing ship;
we must set our course by the stars."
--George Marshall
You've been prayed for today...
Today's RST is in two parts, the first is a response to our last posting, and the second is a quick quote from Yancey's book on prayer to get us set for tomorrow's...
"[Philippians 4 is] probably my 'most favored' chapter in the whole Good Book at this point. If we simply lived by the principles Paul points out in this one chapter alone, I'd venture to say we'd ALL be doing okay...that's easier said than done it seems. I guess that's what Paul meant by having to die every day, but sometimes I find myself dying just getting there! Thank goodness He provides that 'all in all' solution cause Lord knows I fall shorter and shorter of the mark each day I continue to attempt moving the ball forward on my own."
Thanks, Ronnie, and yeah, I know what you mean. Especially loved your "If we simply lived by the principles..." --- ahhh, if it only were in fact a simple thing, but no, I (and here I'm sure it's just me) I just keep taking the wheel, then getting anxious about things I have little-to-no control over, not rejoicing much, frequently forgetting to say "thank you" for the vast quantity of blessings I have received and instead focusing of course on the little bit I don't have...kind of makes it difficult to have that promised peace that transcends understanding (and it also bears reitrating that anything I pay attention to or focus on that is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, or praiseworthy does nothing helpful to my relationship with the God of peace)...brilliant!
Here's the quote--I leave it to you to figure our how it's related to our line of thinking today:
"We must stop setting our sights by the light of each passing ship;
we must set our course by the stars."
--George Marshall
You've been prayed for today...
Monday, February 5, 2007
Peace That Transcends Understanding...Think About Such Things
Hey, Y'all,
Today's RST is evidently not so random--I read it earlier, and Olya forwarded part of it to me as a postscript. It's two thoughts, really, both of which are "words to live by" and "post-it-note-on-the-mirror-worthy." So here we go, from Philippians 4...
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things...And the God of peace will be with you."
You've been prayed for today...
Today's RST is evidently not so random--I read it earlier, and Olya forwarded part of it to me as a postscript. It's two thoughts, really, both of which are "words to live by" and "post-it-note-on-the-mirror-worthy." So here we go, from Philippians 4...
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things...And the God of peace will be with you."
You've been prayed for today...
Friday, February 2, 2007
Yancey On Prayer -- Closing Introductory Thought
More from Yancey on prayer...speaking of which, you've been prayed for today.
"I have come to see prayer as a privilege, not a duty. Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter. [Rings true, doesn't it?]
"If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge."
"I have come to see prayer as a privilege, not a duty. Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter. [Rings true, doesn't it?]
"If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge."
[ Also too true--but it could just be me :-) ].
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