I’m a PI - a prayer investigator. I carry my camera around discovering and enjoying beautiful places of prayer – chapels, prayer gardens and prayer rooms. Eventually I hope to post my findings on a website.
In my sleuthing I’ve discovered an unusual prayer place phenomenon. These are unlikely places that become places of prayer spontaneously. They’re not intentionally designed by anyone to be a spot where we pray. Circumstances and dramatic events make these once-ordinary places into spots where people can’t help but pray. An example is Ground Zero at the site of the World Trade Center. And what about classrooms during final exam time? And then there are air planes.
Let me tell you about landing in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Even on a day with perfect flying weather, it brings out the intercessor in all of us. Tegucigalpa sits down in a bowl of high, rugged mountains. Miles before you’re anywhere near the airport you begin getting uneasy as you descend into a corridor between two mountain ranges. No one especially likes to look out both sides of an airplane and see terra firma fairly close to you on both sides.
There’s a spectacularly climatic ending to the ride. The plane descends rapidly down what feels like a narrow ravine between the mountains. It seems like you’re on a ski slope instead of an airplane. Just when you think things couldn’t get any scarier, a small stubborn half-mountain looms right at the nose of the diving plane. If there are people crazy enough to be on the hill, you imagine you can see the whites of their eyes. Then the plane takes a hard left turn while steeply dropping and aims for a small, single, very short runway that drops off with a small cliff on the end. When the plane stops the hard skidding before the end of the runway, the cabin always erupts into spontaneous applause.
I’m not generally nervous about flying, but last year when we landed in Tegucigalpa there were clouds. Suddenly the mountains on each side were gone and we were in a cotton ball of white-out. That’s when I started into prayer mode. I prayed, “Put angels under the wings.” I must have been the most ardent silent cheer leader for those unseen angels. Zing. We were down under the cloud cover and headed straight for that small stubborn half mountain. And glory be! Since our last landing a year ago it had been flattened out a little on top.
I held onto my seat for the abrupt left turn and the smoking-brakes touch-down. And as the cabin erupted into applause, it sounded a lot like “amen” to me.
As a PI, I’d recommend that you find a nice peaceful, beautiful place of prayer you can visit often. But be on the alert. You never know when circumstances will turn the very spot you happen to be at the moment into a place of communal prayer.
A member of our mission team sent us this video of a plane landing in Tegucigalpa. I don’t recommend you watch it if you’re afraid to fly or have a heart condition. But if you’re an adrenalin junkie, fasten your seat belts for the ride!
Maybe you’ve known about “scope creep” forever, but I just found out about it last week.I was talking on the phone with the volunteer Web Director for our new nonprofit Prayer Igniters about a long email I’d sent him.The email was a detailed list of new ideas and features I’d recently decided were essential for the website we were trying to build.
The volunteer Web Director had already spent hundreds of hours putting together a prototype of how our site would function.And now I wanted more!
I cheerfully told him all of my “brilliant” new ideas.He entertained them one by one, and reluctantly said, “O.K., we could probably do that...”Each time, the tone of the phrase became less and less “O.K.” with more of that trail off at the end of his voice that said, “This is getting out of hand…”
Finally he said diplomatically, “I think we’ve got to watch out for scope creep.”
“Scope creep?” I asked, “What’s that?”
“It’s when you start off a job and it’s a certain size, but as you get going on it, it gets bigger and bigger until it’s out of control.”
The only thing to do was to laugh and say, “Oh!I didn’t know there was a name for my talent.I’m good at scope creep!Guilty as charged.”
We both laughed and I had a much more sensible conversation after that.
As I thought about scope creep I realized that the same kind of thing goes on in the Kingdom of God.In fact, I think God invented scope creep.Can you name a single ministry or volunteer church job you took on that didn’t turn out to be bigger than you expected in ways you never expected?
I’m wondering if scope creep is actually God’s kindness, a way of keeping us mercifully unaware that we’re no match for the job until we’re already giving it our best shot.That’s because we forget to be praying people if we don’t need to continually rely on Him. The worst thing we can do is to try and keep the job on a small enough scale that we can easily handle it all by ourselves.Where is God’s joy in that?
I started out this new nonprofit idea more than a year ago.It sure sounded a lot smaller back then. Check with me in a year from now, and I’ll probably be overrun with the blessings of scope creep.After all, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God “is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”Luke 13:21
Suffering from scope creep today?Don’t worry.That’s how the Kingdom of Heaven gets enlarged in our lives.Just one more “teeny weeny” addition at a time.
In my last blog I told about feeling inadequate praying in Spanish and told how I’m determined to memorize the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish so I can pray more effectively with the people I’ll meet on my mission trip to Honduras.In my Bible school teaching materials I came across this photo that immortalizes one of my biggest prayer blunders – tripping over a woman’s diseased foot when I tried to sit down on a log to pray for her.The elderly woman sitting on the bed was the victim of my blunder.The photo gives a glimpse of her thin leg that’s not much wider than the bed leg.
Since I posted my blog, I have been touched not only by your comments but also by those of you who said you would be praying for me that I’d succeed in being able to pray in Spanish.How amazing that you can even pray about prayer!
Our Prayer member “emendez” shared some profound wisdom in a comment.“Karen, God's language of love is universal and because you will pray from the heart God will provide the words so, you need not worry.”
I got to thinking about that, and re-read the prayer printed in the front of my Spanish Bible that I stumbled through after I stumbled over the woman’s diseased foot.Here’s a very rough translation of the words I prayed:
Father, your Son accepted our sufferings to teach the value of patience in illness.Listen to the prayers we offer for our sick brothers and sisters, that all who suffer pain, suffering or sickness will know that our Lord has chosen them to be holy and know that they have become united with the passion of Christ for the salvation of the world, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit forever and ever.
After re-reading this prayer, I realized that it’s a very beautiful one, and it has sentiments in it that I wouldn’t have thought to pray on my own.Whenever I pray for those who are ill, I focus completely on their problems and on the need for healing never once thinking to pray for patience during suffering.Patience?I always pray for the opposite – for a full, rapid recovery.And I never think to pray about how the pain and suffering draws us closer to the heart and the redemptive work of Christ.I like to pray spontaneous words, but how could any words of prayer be better than that?
So yes “emendez,” you’re absolutely right.It’s not the words of our prayers that matter that much.It’s not whether we compose the prayers spontaneously as we speak or whether we read as best we can words that someone else has written.What matters is that we want to be a conduit of prayer so that God’s love can flow into troubled lives.
For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to memorize the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish because on Jan. 30th I’m off on my 5th mission trip to rural Honduras.This year I hope to be able to pray in Spanish with people there who need it.Praying in Spanish out loud is a very intimidating thought, and I’m not sure I can do it.
I’m far from fluent in Spanish.I took 5 years in high school and never really tried speaking Spanish until 5 years ago on our first mission trip.I had to teach Bible school in Spanish without a translator!I slaved over translating everything I wanted to teach into Spanish at home before I went using an online free translation site.I carefully typed every word out in the notebook.In Honduras I let the older students read the Bible passages and when someone asked me a question, I filled in the words I didn’t know with facial expressions and gestures.
It wasn’t until the 3rd year I tried praying out loud with someone in Spanish – an elderly woman with a diseased foot.I asked her if I could pray for her using a prayer for the sick written in front of my Spanish version of the Bible.While we were trying to sit down together on a low log in the farmyard, I actually tripped over the woman’s sore foot!I was so flustered and embarrassed she probably couldn’t understand a word of what I read.
Here’s a photo taken last year and the second woman I prayed with in Spanish.I read the same prayer for healing out of the Bible for the handicapped son she’s holding.She seemed grateful, but I didn’t feel that I was really praying what I wanted to for the woman.
So this year, I’m praying for the courage to use whatever Spanish phrases I know to pray with others and to not worry about using the present tense all the time when I meant the past tense conjugation of the verbs.I figured it won’t hurt to memorize some of the best from the Lord’s Prayer so I’ll have good phrases and thoughts to build on and personalize as I focus on God.In my own experiences here at home praying with others in English I’ve slowly discovered that it’s fine to talk about prayer and quite nice to say to someone that you’ll pray for them, but nothing replaces the power and intimacy you feel when you take the time when you’re together and touch them and say a short prayer with them.There’s nothing like it in the world.
I guess we all struggle with comfort levels when it comes to praying with others. Check my blog the week of Feb. 6 when I’m back from Honduras and I’ll let you know how I do praying in Spanish.After all, we could all use some encouragement when it comes to overcoming our own discomfort to connect with another soul in prayer.
Today is a snow day in Atlanta.School has been canceled. The sun is shining brightly at the moment and there’s probably half an inch of snow or less on the ground.
Usually by this time of day our temperature would be up above freezing, but it’s not expected to go above 30.Will anything melt?Quick and easy melting is something we rely on here in the South when a rare snow comes our way once a year.
Here’s a picture of a spot of frozen snow and ice on the road near my house on one of those suburban cul-de-sacs where few cars travel. If there was plenty of clear dry pavement with a few patches of this, what would you do?Stay home or venture out?
I thought some of you in other parts of the country might find this question amusing.But it’s a serious question here in Atlanta because we don’t have experience driving in winter conditions. I don’t even own a snow shovel.Late yesterday afternoon I went out with a broom and tried to sweep up the dusting of snow on the north side of the driveway where our cars back around so it wouldn’t freeze over.Sorry I didn’t get a picture of me sweeping snow.You’d probably find it amusing.Unfortunately, it spit a little more snow after I swept so it’s frozen over any way.I give up!
This has gotten me thinking about how good it is to sometimes be thrown something we don’t know how to handle because it highlights the grace of prayer.Those of you in colder climates wouldn’t let a little bit of snow like this keep you down.Snow is a part of your winter that you deal with all of the time.I don’t really know how to deal with snow.It’s the same snow, just different personal perspectives and differing abilities to cope.The joy of prayer is that whatever is a big deal to us, even if it isn’t a big deal to other people, is a big deal to God.Whatever we can’t easily cope with, even if others take it easily in stride, is worthy of prayer.God never has said to me, “Everybody else can handle this, why can’t you?”Instead, He always listens and always helps me find the strength to face the daily small things I’m quite sure I can’t handle.
So happy snow day!If you need me, I’ll be here in my home office with the afghan on my lap.
I just overheard a news story on TV about how the majority of us who make New Years resolutions don’t keep them.The program said that only one of out of four who make resolutions end up succeeding in keeping them.They went on to say that the most popular resolutions are to get our finances in order, to lose weight and to live a more healthy lifestyle.They said the best way to succeed is to put your resolution in writing, sign it and put it on your refrigerator.Sounds good, but it’s missing the power.
This past year I started something a little different called a Program of Life.I went to an Ignatian retreat where I learned about the spiritual ideas of St. Ignatius.I was challenged to spend time in reflection to find out my core sin.There are only 3 according to the program – Pride, Vanity and Sensuality.Mine turns out to be vanity.I’m not one of those center of attention type vanity cases, but rather the kind who’s a little on the quiet side and worries a lot about what others think of me, causing me to try and please others all the time .Not a good way to live.
However the next step to changing my ways surprised me.Instead of trying to combat my problem by focusing on my not-so- great behavior, I was instructed to instead work on the positive side by choosing an opposite virtue to cultivate.I chose love for Christ, which combats vanity by helping me not focus on what others think of me, but only what Christ thinks of me and on pleasing Him .
I followed the instructions to write down five concrete steps I could take to grow.However at least two of these had to be spiritual in nature and that’s where the news program got it all wrong.Lasting personal change is nearly impossible without God’s help.The two steps I invented were to read a part of one of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke or John - every morning to get to know Christ better. It was simple enough that I’ve been able to do it every morning since last June.The other spiritual step I chose was very simple, too.I have an old fashioned picture of Jesus holding a child in my dining room.On the days I’m really off base in worrying about what someone else thinks about me I simply go and pull a dining room chair out from the table and look at the painting.I don’t have to formally pray or say things, I only have to sit there and focus on Jesus and my perspective slowly changes.
So here’s the best news about New Years resolutions that hasn’t been broadcast on the TV new.The best resolution we can make is to find tangible ways to get closer to God.When we do, the finances, the weight loss and the healthy life styles we want are finally attainable because we have power beyond our own to help us make positive changes.
In this morning’s paper there was an article entitled “Learn to Relax During the Holidays.”Every year these articles tell us to simplify, delegate, forget perfection and not try to do everythingwe think we should do so we won’t be so stressed out.It never works.So this Christmas I’m learningto do the opposite.I’m going to embrace the stress.
Our stress started in November when we volunteered to have our Sunday school Christmas party at our house:26 adults for a covered dish dinner.Did we go the simple, relaxed route?Of course not!We immediately began noticing things around the house that looked worn and dirty.We had the carpets in the entire house steam cleaned.We repainted woodwork.Gordon did a floor trim job in the guest bathroom he’d been meaning to do.We got a new kitchen table and chairs.We cleaned out the refrigerator and the laundry room.
We had planned to do Christmas decorations over Thanksgiving, but John landed in the hospital.Did I relax?No.I sat in the hospital room listening to old re-runs of Seinfeld and writing Christmas cards.Gordon assembled our artificial tree while I was at the hospital.Our other sons put on the lights.I decorated the whole tree myself after John was better and back off to college.
The morning of the party my neighbor had a cookie exchange.Right before our party I baked 9 dozen nut finger cookies.Gordon made his annual guest appearance at the cookie exchange that morning as Santa.Afterwards I got a shot of him stretched out in the recliner in front of the tree.It was a completely staged shot.No one actually relaxes in a Santa suit with big pillows stuffed in your shirt.It’s way too hot and the beard is very annoying.
All of this stress and over-doing had me looking long and hard at a picture I put on our mantle every year for Christmas.This painting is called “Madonna of the Streets” because it shows Mary as a young mother in ragged clothes.Looking at the picture that’s center stage in our decorations, I realized that stress is not only part of Christmas, it is the essence of the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph and a difficult journey to Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.It’s the experience of a worn out couple with financial worries who were about to welcome a baby into the world on the roadside because of a demand placed on them by their culture to go and be taxed.Our Christmas stress binds us to Mary and Joseph like long lost relatives and we enter into the Scriptures feeling ourselves on their journey in need of rest and help. Our stress is our true Christmas journey, building in us a feeling of overwhelming need for a savior, a need for hope, a need for divine perspective and a need for heavenly peace.And so my Christmas wish is that your holidays be filled with productive stress that leads you on a needy journey toward the amazing Baby born in Bethlehem.
We played an interesting game here at my house at our Sunday School Christmas party.We hid 30 common items within plain view and gave a list to our guests.It wasn’t as easy as it seems because we put items in places where they would easily blend in with the decor and would fool your eye if you didn’t look closely.Want to play?In the photos below find a Kennedy silver dollar, an artificial sweetener packet and a yellow electrical connection cap.Happy hunting!
The winner of our game found 28 of the 30 items.She never found the dime or the golf ball and no one else did, either.Sure, the dime on top of the flat lamp finial in the den was pretty tricky.But the golf ball in a vase of miniature shell flowers in the living room?That surprised me because a golf ball is a fairly big item not to see, especially nestled in with little flowers!Yet out of 24 people, no one saw it.
I think the reason no one saw the golf ball isn’t about poor eyesight, but rather about expectations.We see what we expect to see even though there’s more to the picture.This turns out to be the perfect Christmas game because it reminds us of Luke 2:12 where the angels tell the shepherds that they would find the newborn king and savior of the world wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in an unlikely place – a cow trough.The manger is our introduction into the lifelong spiritual fun of seeing beyond our expectations in order to savor the small beautiful details of God’s kingdom that we’ll miss if we don’t look closely.May you see something beyond your expectations today.
I just returned from an overnight trip with my sister Susan to the North Carolina mountains. It was our Christmas gift to each other so for two short days we could get away from the stress, cares and worries of our lives. As we drove up we talked about illness and financial distress and missing Mom and Dad. Mom died 8 years ago. Dad died 4 years ago. Then I turned off on the wrong interstate exit and we found ourselves at the gateway to The Cove, a retreat center founded by Billy and Ruth Graham.
We hadn’t planned on visiting there, but got a visitor’s pass and went to the visitor’s center in the chapel. It was a cold December Monday and we were the only visitors. Nevertheless, the cheerful volunteer tour guide showed us around and we marveled at the gorgeous winter sun being admitted to the chapel through the leafless trees on the mountainside. It seemed to set the beautiful polished heart pine floors into glorious flame and the whole chapel seemed to glow.
Our guide took us up front and told us how they’d acquired the grand piano. Then she asked, “Do either of you play the piano?”
Susan said wistfully, “I used to play. I haven’t played in a long time, so I wouldn’t be very good.”
We exchanged an uneasy glance, both remembering how the piano Susan had inherited from our girlhood home had burned up in her house fire four years earlier. I remembered seeing the metal piano strings in the ashes. That was all that had been left of the piano. Susan hadn’t been able to replace it. And I remembered how we’d gather around that old piano and Dad would get out his ancient violin from his high school days and we’d sing Christmas carols together. Dad’s violin had burned up in the fire, too.
The guide went on, “There’s plenty of music in the piano bench. And here’s a hymnal.”
I found myself saying, “Susan, play something for us.”
She sat down in front of the grand piano in the empty chapel and thumbed to the hymnal to “Silent Night.” I sank down into a seat on a front pew as the beautiful strains of “Silent Night” rose from the open sounding board and echoed off the polished floor. Susan swayed gracefully as she played and I felt tears well up in my eyes. It was one of God’s perfect moments.
The vibrations of the piano strings ceased and Susan got up from the piano bench and the guide said how beautiful that had been. The beautiful piano in the empty sanctuary had come to life under Susan’s touch. And we had come to life because of its music.
Saturday, November 28: Eating turkey with a few seats still empty.
After our cancelled Thanksgiving dinner, I finally cooked the turkey and we had stuffing and mashed potatoes and green beans and cranberry sauce. But there were still two people missing at our table for our belated Thanksgiving dinner.
Our 19 year old son John was still in the hosptial being treated for an infected/inflammed area in his intestine. My husband Gordon was at the hosptial with him. But once you thaw a turkey, you have to cook it. And so the rest of us gathered around the table on Saturday - our son Jeff, his wife Leah, baby Kendall, our son Chris and his buddy David.
It wasn't Thanksgiving Day or even Black Friday, but it felt like a holiday. It wasn't because of the food but because John was on the mend and they weren't talking about possible surgery any more. Over at the hospital they even let John eat for the first time in 3 days. A true answer to prayer!
I got to thinking that it was the first time in my whole life that I hadn't eaten turkey on Thanksgiving. And I certainly had never dreamed of ever cancelling Thanksgiving dinner! Yet both those unimaginable things happened and life was still good.
I think God was teaching me a valuable lesson going into the Christmas season. I tend to get wrapped up in the celebrations and making sure the food and decorations and gifts create the perfect holiday. But all of those things are simply the setting. The true holiday lies in a deeper, less tangible realm. It isn't even about which loved ones are or aren't seated at your dining room table or around the Christmas tree.
Holidays are Holy days. Any day can be holy when you God is there. Whatever brings you closer to God makes ordinary time holy. Sometimes during holidays it is traditions and friendships and special feasts. Other times it is a hardship that turns time upside down and causes you to rely totally on God's power when yours is all used up. Whatever your life situation today, may I be the first to wish you a very happy holy day.
