Sunday Prayer, April 26, 2020

Francis of Assisi (1181-1226 CE)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where the is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Amen

What Is Celebrate Recovery?

For many of us, the Christian walk is not a smooth road. There are a lot of speed bumps, ruts, and potholes—in the form of negative experiences due to our own actions, or the actions of others, or of just living in a broken world, These obstacles slow or stop our progress. There are also many billboards the Enemy has placed alongside the road, signs that advertise so many quick fixes to the quest for fulfillment: “Turn at the next exit for pleasures that will change your life!” “Spiritual palliative care on the cheap ahead!” “Stop! Turn around! You missed your exit to security through your will to power!” These unhealed wounds and empty substitutes (and countless others like them) are a part of what Celebrate Recovery has come to call our “hurts, hang-ups, and habits.”

I have got my share of those. I have got plenty of scars from childhood trauma, bad breaks, and self-inflicted wounds. My lack-of-dad issues and too-much-of-granddad issues can often trigger flight-or-fight responses when faced with difficult men. And do not get me started on my mom issues. During my walk, I have come to realize I often turn down the side-street of people-pleasing in search of the affirmation and accolades of others to satisfy my yearning for peace. I have also taken the exit to overeating to numb my anxiety or loneliness or hurt feelings. And I have pulled over on the shoulder to roll down my window and throw a few bucks at one of my favorite drug dealers—overspending—in order to get a quick high. And I will get a temporary fix but only end up feeling worse about myself and even farther away from God.

If you are like me, you could use help with all your personal baggage.

Birthed from the ministry of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, Celebrate Recovery (CR from here on out) provides the helping hand that so many of us need to get over our past, break free from our present, and head toward a brighter future. CR is a twelve-step program with a couple of major differences from typical twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.

The first major difference is that CR makes no bones about who the program points to as the only true “Higher Power.” That person is the triune God of the Bible. Almost all the other programs of this nature keep their Higher Power vague and ambiguous, leaving he/she/its identity up to individual choice to be as inclusive as possible. While this is laudable, I have always wondered just how effective such programs were in leading people to a saving awareness of the truth. They might help you with your addition, but they might not point you to Jesus. CR is unapologetic being a Christian recovery ministry.

Second, CR does not discriminate when it comes to our habits, hurts, and hang-ups. The typical twelve-step program focuses in on one specific area of addiction—alcohol, pornography, or overeating, for example. CR, on the other hand, provides help and support for those wrestling with any pervasive temptation, struggle, or issue.

In addition to their own Christianized version of the twelve steps, CR also has eight principles which are based upon an interpretation of the Beatitudes, as well as the fuller and richer version of Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous Serenity Prayer, a staple of most recovery programs.

A typical CR meeting includes a large, unified group lesson and then small groups that are divided up usually by gender and by source of struggle. The unified lessons alternate between testimonies and studies on the steps and principles. As with other twelve-step programs, CR offers sponsors who can guide people through the steps. And, just like other twelve-step programs, CR demands that people in the program respect the privacy and anonymity of other people in the program. It is a safe place for people to come and to share their struggles and find support.

I am by no means an expert about CR. I have just started attending meetings. To be honest, I had been looking for something like this for quite some time. What I love most about CR is that it allows the local church an opportunity to be Jesus to broken and hurting people. All of us, no matter who we are, have hurts, hang-ups, and habits. All too often in the local church, we feel pressure to keep these struggles under wraps, to pretend I am okay, you are okay, we are all okay. Multiply that pressure a hundredfold if you are in vocational ministry. To admit weakness is to somehow admit being a lesser person, to being someone who is not a “good Christian,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. And so, our church gatherings can resemble something more like Pharisee conventions than places of healing for people who have been hurt by themselves, others, or the fallen world around them. CR provides an opportunity for wounded healers to approach other wounded people and offer help, with the eventual outcome that those they help in turn become wounded healers themselves.

I think Jesus would like his church to look a little bit more like that.

If you are interested in finding some help with your hurts, hang-ups, and habits in order to make more space for God in your heart and life, I encourage you to check CR out. You can find out more about them, including meetings in your area, at the link below.

Grace and peace.

Celebrate Recovery’s website: https://www.celebraterecovery.com/

Sunday Prayer - April 19, 2020

Brennan Manning, 1934-2013

"Dear Abba,

"The voices in my head this morning are hounding me with the recurring moments I’ve turned away from You because I could not part with all my rich young ruler wealth, the numerous days I’ve Judas-kissed Your cheek in the garden of betrayal, and the countless times I’ve warmed myself by a traitor’s fire and declared like Peter 'I do not know Him!' But then Your accepting voice scatters them all with a mercy fierce and ultimately kind, and I remember that I am loved. I want to simply be in You this day."

April 12, 2020 - Prayer of the Week

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurped town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,

But am betrothed unto your enemy.

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

- John Donne. Sonnet 14

Book Review: Ordering Your Private World

MacDonald, Gordon. Ordering Your Private World. Revised. Nashville, TN: Thomas 

          Nelson, 2003.

Gordon MacDonald has served as a pastor in Massachusetts and as an interim president and now chancellor at Denver Seminary, among other roles he’s had over the years. He and his wife Gail have co-authored some books together, and Gordon has written over a dozen books on his own. He and Gail have two grown children and several grandchildren.

His book Ordering Your Private World is one of MacDonald’s forays into spiritual formation. In it he talks about the intentionality of pursuing growth, not just spiritually, but in all aspects of life. From investing in God’s Word to life-long learning, from taking Sabbath-rests to living with the sense of being called, MacDonald explores what it means to be more than just a skin-deep believer.

The book was born out of MacDonald’s own spiritual journey, and as such it is filled with personal stories. Not only does this make the book quite enjoyable to read, it also gives the reader ample opportunity to relate and resonate with MacDonald’s life experiences and subsequently to take him up on his stress-tested wisdom.

Perhaps the greatest takeaway from the book for me was the clear presentation of two pictures of life—one in which life flows from the inside out, and a bifurcated life in which things may appear all right on the surface, but the chaos hiding within will eventually lead to burnout, despair, and destruction. Though he mentions neither, I couldn’t help but think about Jesus’ description of the Pharisees as being externally clean cups and whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:25-28), and his Parable of the Two Builders (Matthew 7:24-27). It is a sobering thought to think that there might be many people who believe in Jesus and cross all the external t’s and dot all the external I’s, but who are a complete mess on the inside. Sometimes that’s me.

Ordering Your Private World has sold over a million copies and has gone through a few reprints since it first came out in 1984. That’s a testimony of its timeless lasting power. If you’re just now entering into a pursuit of deepening your inner life, or, like me, need to be reminded of what that looks like and be encouraged in your walk, I highly recommend this book to you.

Grace and peace.

You can find this book at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SAZQZM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Prayer for the Week: April 5, 2020

My God, let me know and love you, so that I may find my happiness in you. Since I cannot fully achieve this on earth, help me to improve daily until I may do so to the full. Enable me to know you ever more on earth, so that I may know you perfectly in heaven. Enable me to love you ever more on earth, so that I may love you perfectly in heaven. In that way, my joy may be great on earth, and perfect with you in heaven. O God of truth, grant me the happiness of heaven so that my joy may be full in accord with your promise. In the meantime let my mind dwell on that happiness, my tongue speak of it, my heart pine for it, my mouth pronounce it, my soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it, and my entire being desire it until I enter through death in the joy of my Lord forever. Amen.
- Augustine of Hippo

Silence

“Silence is solitude practiced in action.” – Henri Nouwen

“Don’t just do something. Sit there.” This was the title of a message Haddon Robinson preached in 1991 on Luke 10:38-42. In that passage Luke recounts the story of Jesus’ visit to the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll remember that Martha was bustling about, trying to prepare a huge feast for her visitors (remember Jesus had at least 12 men in tow with him). Her sister Mary, meanwhile, simply sat at Jesus’ feet, letting Martha do all the work while she spent time with Jesus. This naturally perturbed Martha, who finally had enough and complained to her guest that he needed to send Mary to help her in the kitchen. Instead, Jesus refused, saying that Mary had chosen the better thing, and it wouldn’t be taken away from her.

Sometimes we can be so caught up in human doings that we lose sight of the fact that we are human beings, created and designed for intimacy with God. The spiritual discipline of silence helps to realign our hearts with this truth.

Before silence can happen, solitude must first exist. “Silence is the way to make solitude a reality,” Henri Nouwen once wrote (The Way of the Heart). For more on solitude, check the previous blog entry for my thoughts on that

WHAT IS SILENCE?

At the heart of silence is listening. It’s impossible to listen when we ourselves are talking. But this listening should not be to the world or people around us, but rather a listening for God. God rarely shouts. His word to us is often whispered. Only those who still their tongues, quiet their hearts, and remove all the distractions this world affords will be able to catch such a whisper. We live in a loud world; it screams and shouts in its demands for attention. The Prince of this world wants nothing more than to pull us farther and farther away from the God who created, saved, and loves us. In order to draw nearer to him, we must enter into quietness.

According to Nouwen, there are three phases in the transformational power of silence. Silence is a journey, an encounter, and a testimony.

Since speaking is the way of the world and often leads us into sin (cf. James 3), entering into silence is like taking a pilgrimage to another land. By definition, a pilgrimage is a journey, usually a long one, often made to a sacred place. By entering into silence, we take a trip from the loud world around us to a quiet, separate place, an alternate reality, if you will.

Of course, most religious devotees go on a pilgrimage to a sacred place in order to experience a greater awareness of God, or at the least, receive some manner of blessing from him. The inward journey of silence allows us to encounter the Spirit who dwells within us. When we close our mouths (including our inner voice) and remove ourselves from all the distractions around us, we can come near the inner fire of the Spirit.

Imagine your normal routine being like a house on a cold winter’s night with every door and window thrown open. Yes, there is a fire in the hearth, but the cold and the wind are pervasive. It’s hard to feel the heat at all. Entering into silence is like going around and closing all those doors and windows to the outside. Slowly then the heat from the hearth builds until it gives comfort and peace and assurance. So it is with the warmth of the Spirit when we can shut out all other distractions, including our own words. It is in this context that we can rest and listen for the soft whisper of the Master, the whisper that says, “I love you. No matter what you do or what is done to you, I will never stop loving you. You are mine. I will never leave you or forsake you.” In our brokenness, battling our hurts, hang-ups, and habits, we desperately need to hear such whispers, and hear them often.

In its final stage, our experience with silence leads us to bear testimony of it. The whisper of God that we catch in the silence of our interior lives becomes a beautiful and powerful secret that we cannot keep to ourselves. The culmination of silence is, oddly enough, the ministry of the word, where our message to others brings healing, hope, peace, joy, and above all, love.

Think about it. How often have you walked away from a conversation thinking to yourself, “Well, that could have gone better!” Or, “Why didn’t I think to say that?” How often are our words more hurtful or harmful than helpful? The discipline of silence will help us to change that trend.

HOW DO WE PRACTICE SILENCE?

It is important to note that the goal of this discipline is not to create an empty silence, but rather a full silence, a silence permeated with the presence of God.

As silence comes from within the context of solitude, it is critical to find a safe place and an undisturbed time to practice it. Find a location and a time of the day that works for you. Next, eliminate distractions. Turn off your phone. Lock out the cats. If you’re going to be distracted by checking the clock, set a timer. Whatever distraction can be removed from your space, remove it.

Next, listen. At first this will be a struggle. All the things swirling about in your mind will start to scream for attention. Resist attending to them. Your inner voice will tell you this is a waste of time. Ignore it. Your mind will wander. Order it hack to your place of silence. This whole exercise will seem impossible and hopeless at first, but if you stick with it, silence will come easier and easier.

Sometimes when I am greatly distracted with a great many things, I will turn to a centering prayer. I’ll blog more about them in a later post, but a centering prayer is generally two lines long, slowly repeated over and over, with the first line on our inhalation, and the second line on our exhalation. My go-to centering prayer is this:

(Inhale) I am your beloved son/daughter, whom you love;

(Exhale) With me you are well-pleased.

This “centers” me on the truth of this prayer that I can claim because I am in Christ. (Since the Father said it of Jesus, and since I am now in Jesus, the Father says it of me.) When I get to that point of focus, I then invite God into the space this has created, and I become still and silent. And I listen.

Sometimes I catch that whisper. Sometimes I don’t. Regardless of how it goes, I conclude my time of silence with a prayer of thanksgiving.

In his book Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald compares the stories of Moses and Aaron when the people of Israel were encamped at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Moses spent forty days and nights in silence, listening to the word God had for him. Aaron, on the other hand, spent that same amount of time listening to the people around him. One heard the love and affirmation of God and was encouraged to fulfill God’s call on his life; the other heard the complaints and criticisms of the people, and was so discouraged he disastrously gave the people what they wanted instead of what they needed. How you and I finish in this life will depend a great deal upon to whom or what we listen.

The fruit of silence is a powerful word from God that we cannot keep to ourselves. I encourage you to give the discipline of silence, with its sister discipline of solitude, a try some time.

Grace and peace.