What stops us from praying?

It seems like we can find all kinds of reasons NOT to pray: We don't feel like it. We don't know how. It does no good. We don't have time. Maybe the real obstacle to prayer is that we do not understand what it is. Prayer is not a genie-in-a-bottle make-3-wishes-and-all-your-dreams-come-true solution to all the problems of life. Prayer is not magic. It is a conversation with God. And one of the cool things about God is that you can talk to God any time, anywhere, and any way you know how.

When I was in elementary school, I was probably one of the worst softball players ever to walk out on the field, so the coach would put me way, way out in the outfield, where I could do the least damage. It would get kind of dull out there by myself, so I would talk to God. Too many years have passed for me to remember what I might have said, but I do recall gazing up at clouds and listening to the wind and watching dandelions in great fascination. Stopping to admire God's handiwork is a great way to pray. It's always good to say, "Thank you."

An easy way to work prayer into your daily life is to pray wherever you are. If you are waiting to see the doctor, pray. Pray for the other patients in the waiting room. Pray for the doctor. Pray for medical researchers. Pray for those who cannot afford medical care. If you are waiting to pick up your kids at school, pray for students to make good choices. Pray that teachers will be kind and wise and alert. Pray for the kids who cannot afford school supplies. If you are standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, pray for the cashier. Pray for the safety of the stockroom boy. Pray that those folks whose faces are splashed across the covers of tabloid magazines will be good role models.

One of the things I have tried to teach myself to do is to pray about annoyances. When something irritates me and I start to complain about it, I tell myself to stop and pray. For example, instead of getting frustrated about a train making me late to a meeting, I can pray for the hard-working men and women who make the products that the freight cars are carrying.

If we consciously make prayer a priority, we can find countless reasons to pray every day. We can stop to smell the roses and offer prayers of gratitude to God for all the good things in our lives. We can cry out for help when the car won't start or the dog is lost or all of our teachers load us up with homework on the very first day of class.

If you really want to pray without ceasing, pay attention to anything that "grabs" you. If a commercial makes you cry, pause for a moment and ask yourself why. If you find yourself singing along to a song on the radio, stop for a moment and think it. What is it about that song that speaks to you? Pay attention to anything that moves you or angers you or confuses you or brings forth any strong reaction. You may discover that God is trying to get your attention.

Which, of course, only matters if you believe that God has something helpful to contribute to your situation. In Companions to Christ, Adele Gonzalez notes that most of us are pretty sure we've got things under control. We do not pray because, truth is, we really do not want anyone's help, not even God's. We would really rather do it ourselves. Because, if we do everything ourselves, then we can control the outcome. Or we think we can. And we desperately want to control the world around us. That is one of the reasons why prayer is such a challenge (Companions in Christ, 127).

"In prayer we are called to let go, to surrender ourselves to God who loves us and knows us in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. Letting go is difficult ... because we do not trust that God's answers to our prayers ... will be what we want them to be. As Christians, we sometimes claim that we trust completely in God's ways. Yet many of us try to tell God exactly what we want, as well as when and how we want it." (Companions in Christ, 127).

But that is not surrender. And surrendering to God's will is what God asks of all who seek to follow Jesus. It is not easy. It was not easy for Jesus either! On the night he was arrested, Jesus prayed. He knew what was coming. He understood EXACTLY what was about to happen. And he was not happy about it. Jesus did not want to die. He certainly did not want to die as a criminal. Who would? No sane person would. So Jesus begged God to find another way. Jesus cried out to God repeatedly. Jesus poured out his heart to God, but Jesus STILL did not get what he wanted. And sometimes we don't either. We cannot control God. Prayer is not some secret weapon we use to manipulate God into doing what we want. Sometimes, we pour out our hearts to God, and it may feel as if nothing has changed. Jesus was still arrested. My mom still had cancer. The love of your life may walk out the door.

But, when we spend time with God, we are reminded how much God loves us, how good God really is, and how faithful God has always been. And that makes it a little easier to follow Jesus and surrender.

What is prayer?

Prayer can work miracles. There once was a boy named Johnny who had been a very naughty boy, so he got sent to his room.[i] After awhile, he came out and informed his mother that he had thought it over and then said a prayer. “Good,” said his mother, feeling very pleased. “If you ask God to help you behave, God will help you.” “Oh, I didn’t ask God to help me behave,” said the boy. “I asked God to help you put up with me.”

Prayer truly can work miracles. So what is it? What is prayer? The answer to that question is unbelievably simple and incredibly complex, all at the same time. Prayer is talking with God. It is a conversation. That sounds pretty simple, right. We know what conversation is. We know how to talk. But the idea that we, mere humans, might presume to engage in any kind of dialogue with the Almighty God, the Creator, the Alpha and Omega, the one who holds all things in the palm of one hand … now that’s audacious! And then to believe that this Almighty One would LISTEN! And care. And respond. To what WE have to say … that is truly remarkable. But it’s true! Not only does the Almighty God make time to hear our prayer, but God INVITES it. God WANTS to talk with us. Why? Because God loves us, and God wants to give us good things. So God calls us to pray.

When Solomon became king of Israel, he set about building a temple for the Lord so the people would have a place where they could come and worship the one who had created them and rescued them. Not only had God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, the Lord had rescued them from sin and danger and disaster time after time after time. So they built a temple where they could worship their Redeemer. Once it was completed, they held a special service to consecrate it, to set it aside as a holy place. And Solomon prayed, saying, “I have built you a house, Lord. A grand house. A place where you can live forever.” And they worshipped and feasted and celebrated because God had been very, very good to them. And then they went home. That night, the Lord appeared to Solomon and made him a promise. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, the Lord says, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” God promised to be with them. To help and forgive and bless them. If they would pray. If they would humble themselves before the Lord. If they would seek to do what God wanted them to do instead of what THEY wanted to do, God would take care of them. All they had to do was pray.

So how do we do that? How do mere mortals communicate with the Almighty God? In her book “Help. Thanks. Wow: The Three Essential Prayers”, Anne Lamott defines prayer as communication from the heart. “It is a cry from deep within…”[ii] It is the human heart reaching out for the eternal.[iii]

In fact, the poet and hymn writer Richard Baxter once wrote that the purpose of prayer is to spend time with and to get to know God.[iv] “It is, in the first place, a life of deepening acquaintance with God, a life of removing the layers of misunderstanding that obscure our relationship with the Holy One.”[v]

Richard Foster, author of “Celebration of Discipline,” says that prayer “catapults us” into the spiritual life. It ushers us into “perpetual communion” with God.[vi] And this communion changes us. Foster writes, “The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ.”[vii]

Prayer is a powerful thing. An important work. It takes us right to the very heart of God. And maybe that is why it intimidates so many of us. We are afraid that we might say the wrong thing or do it “wrong.” But prayer can take many forms. We can pray for stuff. We can pray for people. We can even pray for ourselves.[viii] Lamott says, “We can pray for a shot at having a life in which we are present and awake and paying attention and being kind to ourselves. We can pray, ‘Hello? Is there anyone there?’ We can pray, ‘Am I too far gone, or can you help me get out of my isolated self-obsession?’ We can say anything to God. It’s all prayer.”[ix]

Lamott believes, and I totally agree, that “when you’re telling the truth, you’re close to God.”[x] And, many times, the truth is NOT pretty. But if you are grieving or in pain or just plain MAD and you say to God, “I don’t like You at all right now,” it’s okay. That may be the most honest thing you have said in a long time.[xi] And God can handle it. God is big enough to take on your pain. God is big enough to take on your sadness. God is big enough to take on your anger. In fact, God may be the only one who can.

Maybe the truth is you’re not so sure that there IS a God. And that’s okay, too. You are not the first person to doubt God, and you will NOT be last. But your skepticism does not change who God is or how much God loves you. If you are not sure what you believe, perhaps you can begin by praying as if you DO believe that God is real. What have you got to lose? Act as if God is real and that God cares enough about you to want to hear what you have to say. Start where you are. Start with your truth. Tell God what is in your heart.

You don’t have to worry about the words you use or how you express them. Prayer happens all kinds of ways. It can be spoken or silent. It can be done whether you are sitting or standing or kneeling. Prayer can be sung or danced or chanted. Prayer can take the form of poetry, pottery or painting. Prayer can be quietness. Prayer can be stillness. Prayer can be contemplative. Prayer can happen when you are alone or in a group. Prayer can be recited from memory. Read from a book. Or spoken off the cuff. Prayer is as diverse as the people who pray because, above all, prayer is personal.

Prayer is a personal response to God.[xii] God is always trying to communicate with us, through scripture, nature, the teachings of the Church, preachers, friends, music, sports…. God can use anything, really, to get our attention. God once used a burning bush to get Moses’ attention. And locusts and plagues were messages intended for Pharoah, but he was just too stubborn to listen. And we do that, too, sometimes. We ignore the things that God is trying to tell us. Sometimes, we ignore them intentionally, and sometimes, we simply do not pay attention. We are too busy and distracted by other people and concerns and work. But prayer opens us up. Prayer opens us up so we can hear what God has to say. And prayer opens us up to what God wants to do.

Wendy Wright, author of more than 20 books on prayer, teaches that prayer is a process of letting go. “As we mature,” she writes, “we encounter ideas and events that profoundly challenge the sense we have made of human life. Sometimes the encounter is shattering, so much so that we feel, or may actually be, utterly adrift.”[xiii]

When this happens, Wright explains, we try all kinds of things to regain our sense of balance. We may retreat, deny or reject our experience. We might adopt “a callous cynicism” or “face into apathy.” We might create rigid and separate spaces for things like religion or business or politics or relationships.[xiv]

But prayer, she says, is “that radical and risky opening of self to be changed by and, in some way into God’s own self. It is a formative life; it changes us and our perceptions. It causes us to see beyond our present seeing. Thus it is a life of continual dying, of being stripped over and over again of the comfortable and familiar, a life of letting go and allowing a reality beyond our own to shape us.”[xv]

That may SOUND scary. Making ourselves vulnerable always IS a little bit frightening. But, when we are open to God, then we are also open to receive the good things that God has for us. Things like wisdom and power and courage and love and direction and hope and healing and wholeness and forgiveness. All these things – and so much more – can be ours if we are open to receive.

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer

O what gifts we often forfeit, o what needless pain we bear

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer.

In his arms he’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.[xvi]

---

[i] The story of the naughty boy is titled “Helpful Prayer” and was published on the Christians Unite website at http://jokes.christiansunite.com/Prayer/Helpful_Prayer.shtml. Copyrighted @ 1999-2016. Downloaded August 2, 2014.

[ii] Anne Lamott. “Help. Thanks. Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.” New York: Riverhead Books, 2012. 2.

[iii] Lamott, 6.

[iv] John S. Mogabgab. “Editor’s Introduction.” Weavings. July/August 1992.

[v] Mogabgab.

[vi] Richard Foster. “Celebration of Discipline.” 33. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978. 33.

[vii] Foster, 33.

[viii] Lamott, 4.

[ix] Lamott, 5.

[x] Lamott, 6.

[xi] Lamott, 6-7.

[xii] Gerrit Scott Dawson. “Companions in Christ: A Small-Group Experience in Spiritual Formation Participant’s Book.” Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2001. 111.

[xiii] Wendy M. Wright. “Contemplation in Time of War.” Weavings. Reprinted in A Guide to Prayer for All Who Walk With God. Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2013. 291-292.

[xiv] Wright, 292.

[xv] Wright, 292.

[xvi] Joseph M. Scriven. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989. 526.

Made in the image of God and yes it matters

I know what it's like to be different. When I was a kid, my eyes were crossed. Corrective surgery helped, but I wore glasses long before anyone else my age did. And I had the big, thick Coke bottle glass lenses, too. So that earned me lots of hurtful nicknames. Lots of people in the world make different a bad thing. But my mom loved me the way I was. In fact, she said we are all different in one way or another, and that's a good thing.

Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of people in the world who have not gotten that message. Muslims, Arabs, Christians, Jews, blacks, whites, Hispanics, Koreans, Turks, Iraquis, Syrians, Afghans, men, women, teens, gays, straights, trans, Republicans, Democrats and Green Partyers too ... we are ALL fighting. Heck, even Taylor Swift and Kanye West are trash talking again. We cannot seem to get along. We are either trying to force everyone to think and do things our way, or else we are trying to wipe the other off the face of the planet. When it comes right down to it, much of the violence in the world has to do with the way we see each other. For too many of us, different means bad.

But the book of Genesis tells us that God created the entire universe and everything in it. And human beings have been given a special place in the creation. It is WE who bear the image of God. We are like God, and that makes all of us super special. Human beings are the best thing God ever made. Think about it. YOU are the masterpiece in God's gallery. You are the crowning jewel in God's crown. You are the best of the best. The cream of the crop. The apple in God's eye. You are God's finest achievement. When God made you, God looked down and smiled and said, "Now, that is good!"

The psalmist reflects on this in chapter 8:

I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and of the moon and stars you put in place. Then I ask, 'Why do you care about us humans? Why are you concerned for us weaklings? You made us a little lower than you yourself, and you have crowned us with glory and honor.

How do you feel when you hear those words? We are just a little lower than God?!?! Are you filled with awe and wonder and amazement? Are you sitting straighter in your seat? Is your chin raised a little? If you feel a little better about yourself and your neighbors, I think that is just what the psalmist intended. We have been made in the image of God! Those words raise us up and put us just under the perfection of the Almighty God! Wow!

The creation story in Genesis teaches us that every human being is made in the image of God, but we do not see that! We do not see God in ourselves. We do not see God in our neighbors. And we do not teach our children to see God in their own faces. And it is our responsibility. It is our responsibility as parents. It is our responsibility as citizens It is our responsibility as a Church. It is our job to teach children to value life. It is our responsibility to teach children to treasure their own lives, and it is our responsibility to teach children to value the lives of other people.

We MUST teach children to value themselves as persons of great worth. They are made in the very image of God! Each one is precious! Each one is special! Each one is sacred! And it is our duty to show them just how valuable they are. If they do not value their own lives, they are not likely to treasure any other life. And we have seen what awful things happen when we do not treasure human life.

A few years ago, I read, "Unbroken," which is the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who became a Japanese prisoner of war during WWII. The book includes some  horrifying details about the abuse the prisoners suffered. One reason the Japanese soldiers could treat the Allied prisoners so badly is that the Japanese people believed that they were superior to all other races. They had been taught to believe that Anglo-Saxons were devils. Beasts. Sub-human. They did not see God in their captives. And, when we do not see God in the people around us, it is easy to dismiss them. It is easy to ignore them. It is easy to hurt them.

That is why the Black Lives Matter movement is so important. They are not saying that other lives do NOT matter. They are trying to tell the world that THEIR lives matter, too.

We may believe that racism and prejudice are a thing of the past, but the truth is they are not. When I get stopped for a burned out tail light, police officers gently point it out and send me on my way. I never have to worry about my safety when I am in the presence of police officers. Never. The same is not true for our neighbors with darker skin. And that is not right. That is not fair. That is not justice. And we, the white community, must do what we can to make things right.

Don't misunderstand me. I admire police officers. I know they have an incredibly difficult job. And I believe most of them do what they do because they want to help people. Their lives matter, too. But we must find a way forward that acknowledges the sacred worth of EVERY life.

Right now, our neighbors are hurting. Police officers are hurting. The black community is hurting. They are wounded. They are angry. They are fed up with injustice. And it is our job to help them. Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that we will be held accountable for the way we treat one another. When we mistreat one another, it is just like we are abusing Jesus. When we make fun of people who are different from us, we are taunting Jesus. When we take advantage of the weak, we are cheating Jesus. When we use ugly names for people, we are calling Jesus ugly names. When we  yell at people, we are screaming at Jesus. When we hit people, we are throwing punches at Jesus. When we aim a gun at people, we are targeting Jesus. And God will judge us for it.

God will hold us accountable. God will judge us for what we do, and God will judge us for what we refuse to do.

Redeeming love

Photo by Jolinne Balentine-Downey

More of the flowers are opening. Are we also opening ourselves more and more to the redeeming love of God? To redeem is to make something that is flawed better. That's what God's love does for us. It makes us better people. More honest. More trusting. More wise. More strong. More patient. More forgiving. More like God. But it is a process. It takes time. These flowers did not bloom overnight. They did not appear full bloom in the world. They began as seeds and grew over time. Even now they are still growing into the fullness of what they can be. The same is true of people. We do not come into the world as fully realized human beings. We come as crying, perhaps even shrieking, children. And we grow over time. When we experience love, it helps us to let go of our defenses and open up more of our hearts. The purpose of life is to grow into our full potential, to become all that God created us to be. So what do we need to let go of so that we can grow into the glorious creations God intended us to be? And how can we encourage others to trust more of their hearts to God?

At the cross

Near the cross, a trembling soul,

Love and mercy found me;

There the Bright and Morning Star

Sheds its beams around me. 

 --Fanny Crosby

I've been watching all week as these flowers slowly open, thinking about how people also open up when they come near to the cross and experience God's love. Fanny Crosby writes about the transforming power of love in the classic gospel hymn, "Near the Cross." I was at a Christian concert in Memphis the first time I truly felt embraced by God's love. It was 1984, and I was a freshman in college. Some friends invited me to go with them to see Second Chapter of Acts. I had never heard of the band but was pleased to be included in the group of concertgoers. Though I had never told anyone, I had felt for a couple of years as if God were angry with me for reasons that I didn't really understand. I had been raised in the Church, read my Bible daily and tried to do what is right. But I had not attended worship in years. Looking back, I can see that I was missing being part of a community of faith. At the concert that night, I was deeply moved by an almost overwhelming wave of love that seemed to emanate from the band and encompass everyone in the crowd. In that moment, I knew that God was not angry with me. God had never been angry with me. God surely did not like every decision I had made (or would make) but God loved me, and I loved God, and I loved being in a place where I could worship God with every ounce of my being. I still do. Praying today that you find yourself engulfed in love and mercy.

Photo by Jolinne Balentine-Downey

A redwood tree community

Photo provided by bullockb-d.blogspot.com

It's a big week. Kids everywhere are headed back to school. And, with the beginning of a new school year comes that traditional question: What did YOU do on your summer vacation? Kids will be talking about all the cool things they did. Some learned to swim or ride a bike. Some took family vacations. Some went to see the movie. What I did this summer is move. Here. Which is cool! But I hope that next summer I won’t have to move and maybe my family can take a trip.

One of the places I would LOVE to go is California, but not to see a movie star. I want to see a tree. The Stratosphere Giant.

The Stratosphere Giant is a coast redwood tree that stands over 360 feet tall! That’s huge! That’s five stories taller than the Statue of Liberty! For years and years and years, the Stratosphere Giant was recognized as the tallest tree in the world (as far as we knew), but just recently explorers have found three more redwood trees in that same forest in California that are about 370 feet tall! It’s no wonder they call the highway that runs through the forest "The Avenue of the Giants."

I bet it's really cool, though it’s probably kind of spooky at night. 51,000 acres of giant redwood trees. Some more than 2,000 years old! Can you imagine?! Some of those trees are so big you could actually drive a car through the trunk! (Although that’s not very good for the tree.)

I have never seen a giant redwood except in photographs or movies, but I am determined to get to California some day. I want to lie at the foot of one of those majestic beauties and aim my camera lens straight up. I just want to see what there is to see.

But as big as those giant trees are, it isn’t their size that intrigues me most. It is how they survive for so long. You would think that a 2,000 year old tree that’s taller than most of the buildings in downtown Memphis would need deep roots. But that’s not the case at all with coast redwood trees. Their roots are only five or six feet deep. But they are wide. They might reach out 100 feet from the trunk. And the trees grow BEST in groups. That way the roots can intertwine. They connect. They weave themselves together. They become one.

This gives redwood trees tremendous strength! They are very very tall, but their roots are pretty shallow, and still they can withstand high winds and raging floods because they stand together. They stand as one. They work together.

These giant trees also have a thick bark. On a mature tree, the bark can be 2 feet thick! That thick skin protects the tree from fire.

But if a redwood tree does somehow fall over or gets badly burned, a ring of brand new trees will sprout from burls around the base of the older tree. But, unlike other trees, these new trees will not try to grow up on their own. They will actually work together, drawing on the roots of the parent tree, which helps them to become stronger, more resilient and more mature. Again, these trees survive because they stand together. They stand as one. They work together.

 The church can learn a lot from coastal redwood trees. Just like redwood trees, Christians grow best in groups. There’s strength in numbers. Life is full of challenges: high winds, raging floods, flames of fire. Most of us are simply not strong enough to overcome such challenges alone. We might weather a storm or two out on our own. But, over time, the pressure becomes too great, and we snap or we are uprooted or we go down in flames. We NEED the company of others. Sometimes we have to draw on their strength or wisdom or faith. Sometimes they have to believe for us until we can believe again.

This is what it means to be “one body.” We act and move together, for the good of everyone.

But, Lord knows, it is not always easy. As much as we might love each other, as much as we might LIKE each other, we are all different. We have different opinions. Different histories. Different preferences. Different gifts and abilities. We see things from different perspectives. There’s nothing wrong with that. God made us this way!

God INTENTIONALLY made us different. God INTENTIONALLY made us different so that, together, we can do the work of Jesus Christ. There’s not a single person alive who can do it all. Each of us can do part of the work, but none of us can do it all. So God INTENTIONALLY made us different so we would HAVE to depend upon one another. God WANTS us to work together.

It ain’t easy, but it is possible.

It’s going to take humility. If we are going to be one body in Christ, if we are going to work together to make disciples, if we are going to accomplish God’s purposes in the world, it is going to take humility. WE are not in charge. This is not MY church. It is not your church. It is God’s church. Jesus is the leader, and we are all trying to follow him the best way we know how. And just like those first followers, we are going to make mistakes. We are all sinners trusting in grace. But God can use us. God can use ALL of us. God can use all of us to accomplish great things if we will allow God to lead us.

God WANTS us to work together. It ain’t easy, but it is possible. It’s going to take gentleness. If we are going to be one body in Christ, it is going to take gentleness. When you live together in community, other people’s quirks, eccentricities, sins become clearly evident. And you COULD jump all over ‘em for it. And there may be times, when folks NEED to be enlightened. Lives may be at stake. But harsh words tear down and destroy. And we are called to build UP the body of Christ. Gentleness is CHOOSING your words carefully. It is encouraging others to strive for holiness rather than reprimanding them for their weakness.

God WANTS us to work together. It ain’t easy, but it is possible. It’s going to take patience. If we are going to be one body in Christ, it is going to take patience. Nothing and no one makes permanent changes quickly. We are all going on to perfection. We are all works in progress. And it takes time. It takes time to change a culture. It takes time to change minds. It takes time just to get to know each other. So we are going to have to take a deep breath and set aside our time tables and trust that God has things under control.

God WANTS us to work together. It ain’t easy, but it is possible. It’s going to take acceptance. If we are going to be one body in Christ, it is going to take acceptance. God DOES have a plan for this world, and it is a plan for redemption. And the Almighty God knows a little more about the ways of the world than I do. So it would help the process if I can learn to accept that God’s ways are not like mine, and God’s plan may not line up with my expectations. God may not line up with my expectations, and none of you may line up with my expectations either. And you know what? That is okay because God is God and I am not. And, for that, we can all say, "Hallelujah!"

God WANTS us to work together. It ain’t easy, but it is possible. It’s going to take love. If we are going to be one body in Christ, it is going to take love. God loves us even when we are NOT very lovable. So maybe, just maybe, we can cut ourselves and others some slack.

God WANTS us to work together. It ain’t easy, but it is possible. It is going to take effort. If we are going to be one body in Christ, it is going to take effort. It won’t just happen. We have to work at it. We have to keep humbling ourselves before God. We have to keep being gentle. We have to continue to practice patience. And acceptance. We have to continue to love.

Grace, Peace & Joy!

Pastor Jo

Photograph of a stained glass
window at Trinity United
Methodist Church, Paris, TN.
Taken by Jolinne Downey, 2012.
The sanctuary was destroyed by
fire in April 2015.

  "Ask and it will be given to you." That's what Jesus tells his followers right at the very beginning of the gospel of Matthew (7:7-11). "Everyone who asks receives." So why didn't it work for Jesus? In Matthew 26:36-46, Jesus is clearly distraught. He is on his knees, with his face turned to heaven, and there is pain in his eyes as he cries out to God, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." Jesus pours out his heart to God. "I know what's coming. We both do. They are gonna kill me. And I don't want to die! Please, God, isn't there another way? Please..." Jesus asked, and he was pretty clear. He did not want to die. And he was the Son of God, "the Beloved." The one who pleased God. Jesus asked for what he wanted, and God told him, "No." So what's the point? If prayer did not work for Jesus, then why should any of us pray?

  If you are one of those people who doesn't really "get" prayer, it may reassure you to know that prayer does not come easily to most of us. If you go to amazon.com, you can find over 100,000 books on prayer. So what is it about prayer that both fascinates and frustrates us?
  Simply put, prayer is about being in the presence of God, and that is an awe-inspiring thing. God is awesome in power. But God is also frustrating! Because we don't always understand God's ways. So prayer is about presence. We are ALWAYS in the presence of God, but prayer begins when we are AWARE of the presence of God. And that can happen ANYWHERE at ANY TIME. In his book "Everything Belongs", Richard Rohr states that prayer is not about saying the right words or even thinking words. Prayer is a stance. It is a posture. An attitude. It is a way of living in God's presence. Prayer is making room for God and finding joy in God's presence (page 300).
  Remember when your first child was born, and you thought you would fall to your knees in gratitude? Or the time you were out fishing on the lake, and you looked up into the most beautiful sunset that ever stretched across the sky? Or that time you were up at 2 am waiting for your boy to come home, and he did? Remember how you felt? That is prayer. Prayer begins when we realize that we are in the presence of an Almighty God, and this Mighty God cares DEEPLY about US. Prayer is about presence. And prayer is about assurance.
  Jesus did not want to die. He clearly asked God to find another way. Jesus was free to rebel against God's will. He did not go to the cross like some pre-programmed robot. He did not WANT to go, but he went. Because prayer changed him. Did you hear that? Jesus was changed as he spent time in prayer. When he went into that garden that night, Jesus was "grieved and agitated" (Matthew 26:37). He knew he was about to die, and he didn't like it one bit. So he began his evening of prayer asking God to find another way. Jesus knew what he wanted. He wanted to LIVE. But as much as he wanted to live, Jesus wanted more to please God. That's why he says, "Yet not what I want but what you want."
  It didn't happen immediately. Jesus did not suddenly change his mind and say, "Oh, it's okay if I go to the cross." No, he never WANTED to die. But he wanted to please God. Jesus wanted to please God more than anything. He wanted to please God more than he wanted to live. So, over the course of the evening, his prayer slowly changed. He no longer asks God to "let this cup pass from me." Instead, he prays, "If this cannot pass unless I drink it..." Prayer changed Jesus.
  Prayer gave Jesus a blessed assurance. Prayer brought peace. Prayer brought acceptance. Prayer brought trust. Prayer made it possible for Jesus to say, "Your will be done." Prayer made it possible for Jesus to go to the cross.
  Jesus trusted God, and even though he did not want to die, Jesus believed that God loved him. Jesus believed that God had a plan, and that it was a good plan, and that somehow God would make things right. And God did! Sure, in that moment, when he was in pain and agony on the cross, Jesus felt like he was all alone. His friends and family and all those adoring fans had fallen away and left him to suffer alone. But the resurrection of Christ shows us that God was with Jesus every step of the way. God DID have a plan. And it was a good plan. It was a plan to bless Jesus. And it was a plan to bless all the people of the world THROUGH Jesus. No, Jesus did not get what he asked for that evening in the garden. He got something better. Not easier, but better.
  Jesus taught his followers to ask God for what they wanted. God is a good and loving parent (7:7-11). God wants to give us good things. God will not be angry if we ask for what we want or need. In fact, God will give good things to those who ask for them. We may not get exactly what we ask for when we ask for it. But God will give us good things if we allow God to bless us. If we seek God's blessing, God will bless us. When we ask God for good things, we open ourselves up to receive God's blessing. We open ourselves up to the awesome power of God. And when we are open to God, then God can do all kinds of good things. God can do good things IN us and FOR us AND for the world.