This prayer is one that I always like to repost when facilitating a series about the love of God. Recognizing the depth of God’s love as it is expressed in the story of Jesus as he plays with kids, celebrates with friends and weeps over the broken, falling in love with this God whose love has no limits, really does change everything in a way that totally transforms our lives. And it very definitely transforms hate into love.
The prayer is attributed to Father Pedro Arrupe (1903- 1991) from the Basque region of Spain who became the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. I was first given this prayer on a card several years ago but have recently also come across it on Ignatian Spirituality.com
Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is,
than falling in love in a quite absolute final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekend,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love,
stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
For Labor Day this year, I invite you to ponder the pattern of your life – looking at the hours you spend doing things – and the ways you pray for the various components of the pattern. I’ll use my own life as an example of what I’m inviting you to do.
Each week has 168 hours, and I sleep an average of 8 hours a night. I wake up really slowly, and of course I do things to get ready for bed. So I’m going to allow about 9.5 hours per day for sleep and the activities that surround sleep. That’s 66.5 hours, the biggest allotment of hours in my week.
Illustration by Dave Baab
I work about 35 hours per week on paid work and volunteer work. I work from home, so I don’t have commuting time like so many people do.
My husband and I babysit our granddaughter one afternoon each week for about 5 hours. Plus we host a weekly dinner for our kids and granddaughter. I usually do the cooking for that dinner. That dinner takes up about 5 hours per week total, so I spend about 10 hours a week with our kids and granddaughter.
I work from home, and my husband and I don’t eat out too often, so I plan and prepare 6 or 7 lunches and dinners each week, including a lot of leftovers. Leaving out the cooking time for the family dinner, I estimate I spend 6 hours per week shopping for food and preparing meals. But I don’t do any dishes! My husband and I eat those lunches and dinners together, which totals maybe 8 hours a week.
Here are my totals so far:
sleeping – 66.5 hours
work – 35 hours
kids and granddaughter – 10 hours
preparing and eating meals – 8 hours
That’s only 119.5 out of 168 hours in the week. That leaves 48.5 hours for exercise, time with friends, conversations with my husband, my women’s prayer group, church, household tasks, prayer times, lots of reading, and other miscellaneous things.
I’ve been comparing how I spend the hours of the week with how I spend my time praying. I read the news for 30 minutes or less every day, which represents only 3.5 hours per week, 2% of the time in the week. Yet my prayers for things happening in the world occupy much more than 2% of the things I pray for. Is that good? In my view, yes, for sure.
My kids and granddaughter occupy roughly 10 hours per week, 6% of my week. They occupy more than 10% of my prayer time. Again, that seems very right.
For me, work takes up 21% of my time. For many people, that figure would be much higher, when taking into account commuting, emails after work hours, and thinking about strategies for work when not working. I suspect that for most people, work is underrepresented in their prayer times. Yet many of us spend more time working than anything else we do except sleeping.
If you’d like to pray for your work more systematically, here are some ideas:
- God’s help on a daily basis. “Help me” prayers are my most common form of prayers for my work. I often ask for guidance.
- People. God is always concerned about relationships. We can pray for many aspects of relationships at work, both for our relationship with others, and for their well being.
- Tasks. Many specific tasks at work are worthy of prayer. We can ask that the tasks we do would serve God and people.
- Fruit. One of my favorite words is “fruitfulness,” the notion that our job is to stay grounded in God, and God will bring fruit from what we do. Fruit is long term, and we can pray for long term good things to come from our work.
- Placement. Am I in the right place in my work? Should I look for another job?
- Thankfulness. Don’t forget to thank God for the aspects of your work that you enjoy, and for the fruit that you can see.
These areas of prayer work well as we pray for others in their work life as well. For Labor Day this year, I encourage you to think creatively about how you pray for your work and for the work of the people you love.
For Labor Day this year, I invite you to ponder the pattern of your life – looking at the hours you spend doing things – and the ways you pray for the various components of the pattern. I’ll use my own life as an example of what I’m inviting you to do.
Each week has 168 hours, and I sleep an average of 8 hours a night. I wake up really slowly, and of course I do things to get ready for bed. So I’m going to allow about 9.5 hours per day for sleep and the activities that surround sleep. That’s 66.5 hours, the biggest allotment of hours in my week.
Illustration by Dave Baab
I work about 35 hours per week on paid work and volunteer work. I work from home, so I don’t have commuting time like so many people do.
My husband and I babysit our granddaughter one afternoon each week for about 5 hours. Plus we host a weekly dinner for our kids and granddaughter. I usually do the cooking for that dinner. That dinner takes up about 5 hours per week total, so I spend about 10 hours a week with our kids and granddaughter.
I work from home, and my husband and I don’t eat out too often, so I plan and prepare 6 or 7 lunches and dinners each week, including a lot of leftovers. Leaving out the cooking time for the family dinner, I estimate I spend 6 hours per week shopping for food and preparing meals. But I don’t do any dishes! My husband and I eat those lunches and dinners together, which totals maybe 8 hours a week.
Here are my totals so far:
sleeping – 66.5 hours
work – 35 hours
kids and granddaughter – 10 hours
preparing and eating meals – 8 hours
That’s only 119.5 out of 168 hours in the week. That leaves 48.5 hours for exercise, time with friends, conversations with my husband, my women’s prayer group, church, household tasks, prayer times, lots of reading, and other miscellaneous things.
I’ve been comparing how I spend the hours of the week with how I spend my time praying. I read the news for 30 minutes or less every day, which represents only 3.5 hours per week, 2% of the time in the week. Yet my prayers for things happening in the world occupy much more than 2% of the things I pray for. Is that good? In my view, yes, for sure.
My kids and granddaughter occupy roughly 10 hours per week, 6% of my week. They occupy more than 10% of my prayer time. Again, that seems very right.
For me, work takes up 21% of my time. For many people, that figure would be much higher, when taking into account commuting, emails after work hours, and thinking about strategies for work when not working. I suspect that for most people, work is underrepresented in their prayer times. Yet many of us spend more time working than anything else we do except sleeping.
If you’d like to pray for your work more systematically, here are some ideas:
- God’s help on a daily basis. “Help me” prayers are my most common form of prayers for my work. I often ask for guidance.
- People. God is always concerned about relationships. We can pray for many aspects of relationships at work, both for our relationship with others, and for their well being.
- Tasks. Many specific tasks at work are worthy of prayer. We can ask that the tasks we do would serve God and people.
- Fruit. One of my favorite words is “fruitfulness,” the notion that our job is to stay grounded in God, and God will bring fruit from what we do. Fruit is long term, and we can pray for long term good things to come from our work.
- Placement. Am I in the right place in my work? Should I look for another job?
- Thankfulness. Don’t forget to thank God for the aspects of your work that you enjoy, and for the fruit that you can see.
These areas of prayer work well as we pray for others in their work life as well. For Labor Day this year, I encourage you to think creatively about how you pray for your work and for the work of the people you love.
by Christine Sine
As we move into September and October we are shifting the focus on Godspace. Our theme for the next couple of months is Let Hate Become Love. As I mentioned in the Godspace update last week, violence and hatred seem to prevail in our world today, yet God is a God of love. So the question I am contemplating is: What does love look like in our world today and how can we be instruments of God’s love into our world and the lives of those around us?
One way I suggest in my post last week, is to do things together like singing, dancing, eating and serving. These all help turn hate into love. Yet we live in an increasingly individualistic and self centred world. How do we bring people together so that hate can indeed be transformed into love?
Lets Introduce Awe and Wonder
This week, as I did research for my new book on creative spirituality, I discovered one way to bring us together that had never occurred to me: Let’s introduce some awe and wonder into our lives. Research suggests that even brief experiences of awe, such as being amid beautiful tall trees, lead people to feel less narcissistic and entitled and more attuned to the common humanity people share with one another. Awe helps bind us to others, motivating us to act in collaborative ways that enable strong groups and cohesive communities. It reorients our actions towards the needs of those around us and can even help us find a sense of purpose for our lives.
Unfortunately, research also suggests that we are awe deprived. We spend more time working and commuting and less time in nature, involved in art and music or with other people, the main situations that invoke awe and wonder. So here are some suggestions for a good dose of awe and wonder:
- Get our into nature. Take a walk in your local park or forest, sit on the beach and watch the sunset, listen to birdsong or a waterfall.
- Take notice of the small beautiful things around you. Pick up a leaf and examine its delicate structure. Examine the petals of a flower, or the details of an ant.
- Seek out what gives you goosebumps. Awe can be triggered by an unexpected smile, a helping hand on the bus, a mural on a wall. Think about what gives you a sense of awe and look for those triggers around you.
- See the world differently. Walk with a child and marvel at their perceptions and curiosity. Look through a camera lens or under a microscope. Close your eyes and rejoice in the beauty of touch and smell.
- Slow down and take notice. Lie on the grass and look at the clouds. Watch the light dance off a raindrop. Listen to your favourite piece of music. read through your favourite poem. Share your experiences in your journal or with a friend.
What is Your Response?
The Bible of is full of expressions of awe and wonder both of God and God’s creation. We see it in Moses awe and wonder at the great creator of the universe as expressed in Deuteronomy 10: 14, 17 (NIV) Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God…. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. We see it in David’s exclamation of praise of creation in Psalm 65:8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy. I think we also see it in Jesus encouragement to his followers to go out and look closely at the birds and think about the wild lilies in Luke 12:27. God and God’s world are meant to inspire us with awe and wonder.
Here too I think we are awe deprived. When was the last time you sat in awe of God’s greatness?
What inspires you with awe when you think about God?
Watch the video below and reflect on this question. How do you feel you could respond?
By Lilly Lewin
So it’s here! A new month, a new beginning! I love starting a new month with a clean calendar. It’s a fresh start for everything. For some it’s the start of the rhythm of the new school year, for others it’s just a new month. And for some of us it’s hard to turn the calendar page because we find ourselves somewhere back in June or July.
Since we are starting a new month, we are transitioning our theme at Godspace from Shalom to the new theme of “Let Hate Become Love”
For me, this is really all about living out the shalom of God in my real life, not just on paper or online.
Let Hate Become Love.
What helps me move from hate to love?
Thankfulness and a grateful heart.
Gratefulness and thankfulness help us experience the shalom of God and when we see all the gifts God is giving to us we are able to give love and peace away to others. I believe Gratitude is a spiritual practice. It takes time and effort to focus on thankfulness when you are having a bad day or when tragedy and suffering are all around, or when the kids are fighting and there is laundry and dishes to be done and the to -do list feels unending. It is really hard to practice thankfulness and gratitude when everyone around you seems to be whining and complaining and you’re ready to join in!
So let’s start practicing. I always say to my family and friends, baby steps!
Grateful Prayer Practices for the weeks ahead.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the people in Texas who are suffering and will be recovering from Hurricane Harvey for months and even years to come. And this led me to some grateful prayer practices:
WATER: When you wash your hands
Take a shower
Wash your clothes
Be thankful for running water.
Thank you God for running water, for both hot and cold running water, for this gift.
As you do the laundry or dishes,
Pray for those who are without running water in the areas flooded by Hurricanes and Typhoons. Or just because they have no access.
Pray for those people around the world who have to walk miles to fill jugs each day
in order to have water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.
ELECTRICITY: As you open the fridge, run the dishwasher, plug in your phone,
Use the computer, Express your thankfulness for electricity
And technology that works.
Thank you God for the resource of electricity.
Help me to remember that it is a gift.
God help me to remember that my complaints about my phone, or lack of a charger, or when the cable goes out are so “first world” and help me to put the whining away and be thankful instead.
Pray for the work crews in areas of crisis, like southeastern Texas, who are rebuilding infrastructure and working on getting power back to homes and businesses.
Pray for people in areas of crisis and those without access to electricity.
As you plug in your phone or computer to charge them, pray for Refugees around the world who are seeking life’s basics.
FOOD:
As you eat a meal, take time to savor the food.
Take time to truly be thankful for the people who grew it,
the people who cooked it (even if it’s you!) and thankful to God for this provision.
When shopping this week, buy an extra item or two and donate it to your local food bank, or clean out your pantry and see if there are things you can donate. (check the expiration dates!)
Thank you God for my daily bread.
BREATHE:
Today, stop. Take a deep breath.
Breathe in and out.
Pause. Listen.
Ask God to fill you with peace and open your heart to thankfulness.
What do you hear around you?
As I pause to listen, as I write this, I can hear the rain on the roof and see the rain hitting the window.
We had the remnants of hurricane Harvey blow through Nashville last night with tornado warnings and flash flooding. Thankfully there wasn’t too much damage around town and none at our house.
Today I am thankful for the very necessary things of a dry house, electricity and coffee!
I’m going to use September as a month to practice thankfulness and gratitude for the things I take so easily for granted. And let love and thankfulness lead the way.
What are three things you are grateful for today?
PS…We are often good at responding to emergency situations and major disasters but not very good at responding to local on going concerns. Find out what’s needed at your local homeless shelter. New socks and underwear in various sizes ( including XXL) are always welcome! and don’t forget diapers!
And here are some practical ways to respond to Hurricane Harvey
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2O89ZX93OGCSU/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1
Cleaning supplies
http://www.umcor.org/UMCOR/Relief-Supplies/Relief-Supply-Kits/Cleaning
Today’s post is adapted by one I wrote several years ago following the earthquake in Haiti.
Probably one of the most challenging questions that we all struggle with is Where is God in the midst of disaster. Houston and growing circle of towns in Texas and Louisiana are under water with the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. In India, Pakistan and Bangladesh more than 41 million people are affected and 1,200 people have died in the monsoonal floods inundating South Asia and in British Columbia wildfires still rage, devastating lives, communities and forests.
The overwhelming images of devastation and suffering that we see bring us to despair. Relief workers struggle relentlessly to handle the unimaginable onslaught. Deprived of sleep, subsisting on an inadequate diet, confronted by unimaginable horrors, some quickly break down and many both workers and victims will require trauma counseling and professional help. We like those more closely involved are overwhelmed by our inability to respond.
Our faith is rocked by disasters like these and, of course, there are no easy answers. How do we believe in a loving God while grieving with so many of my brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones and livelihoods? Yet we know God is not absent.
In A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit talks about the extraordinary communities that arise in the midst of disaster. Calamity doesn’t bring out the worst in us, she contends, it brings out the best. Resourcefulness, generosity and joy arise to shine brightly in the midst of all kinds of horrifying situations. The joy in disaster comes, when it comes, from an affection that is not private and personal but civic. The love of strangers for each other, of a citizen for his or her city, of belonging to a greater whole, of doing the work that matters.
That’s it, I thought as I contemplated this current wave of disasters and my own questioning of God’s presence. Strangers have become neighbors. Across barriers of class and race and religion people are showing they care. The outpouring of financial support for flood victims in Texas has been phenomenal. Volunteers from Australia, New Zealand and the US are fighting fires in British Columbia, and volunteers from around the world are helping provide aid in Asia.
It always amazes me when people half a world away drop everything to come and risk there lives for someone they don’t know and will probably never see again. It is like the parable of the Good Samaritan being lived out in our midst. Heroic rescues, sacrificial acts, generous giving, this is the image of God welling up from within us and shining light in the darkness. This is our loving caring God reaching out compassionately through the helping hands and aching hearts of all of us who are created in God’s image. Why these disasters happened, we do not know but God is there, grieving, loving and caring in and through us.
Disaster blots out the sun but allows the light that is within each of us to shine to its full potential… not alone but together with the many other lights that surround us. In the process it gives us direction – a clear path towards the kind of interdependent, caring life that God intends for all of us.
I think that in the midst of disasters like this God calls all of us to be Good Samaritans, to give what we can and do what is possible to help. So as you watch the images of these disasters that continue to light up our screens don’t allow them to overwhelm you. Prayerfully consider how you can be God’s compassionate hands reaching out to help.
by Christine Sine.
Godspace is getting a new look, a new focus and a new team.
I am once again facilitating the blog, reenergized by my time away and ready to help refocus and renew its purpose. I so appreciate the work Andy Wade has done over the last few years to help me transform it from my personal blog to a community blog and resource center with more than 50 contributors from 10 countries. We hope to continue expanding this and improving the quality of the resources we provide. I am delighted that Andy will continue to contribute compelling articles like his recent Shalom in a World of Conflict and look forward to hearing the fresh insights that emerge as he begins a new job with Gorge Owned in Hood River, Oregon where he lives. He is still a very good friend and I will miss his monthly trips up to Seattle (a four hour drive) for our planning meetings.
Godspace is currently being updated and redesigned and I am blessed to have the help of Hilary Horn, photographer and graphic designer. We love having Hilary her husband Trevor and sons Ephraim and Abram as part of our small community.
Here is our current draft of the new vision statement. It is still taking shape and we appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have as we move forward.
Godspace: an invitation to create a pathway to a more vital whole-life faith. Through diverse voices from around the world we seek to inspire readers to notice, explore and experiment with fresh ways to connect more intimately to God, more effectively to their neighbours and more responsibly to creation. We are concerned about issues of sustainability, community, justice and spirituality and work to motivate followers of Jesus to develop a faith that is expressed in every part of their lives.
The Godspace theme for September and October is Let Hate Become Love. Violence and hatred seem to prevail in our world today, yet God is a God of love. What does love look like in our world today and how can we be instruments of God’s love into our world and the lives of those around us? I have been inspired recently by people who dance together, play together, work together and gardening together as acts of reconciliation https://godspacelight.com/2017/08/21/meditation-monday-dance-your-way-to-reconciliation/ It heartens me to know that such hope giving events can have a lasting impact on our behaviour.
In November and December the blog will focus on preparing our hearts and lives for Christmas. Our theme is Joy to the World. This is a favourite Christmas hymn for many of us, yet I wonder what is the joy that we look forward to in this season and how can we help bring it into the world? I have sensed for a long time that we need more than just the month of Advent to prepare us for the celebration of Jesus birth and this year we will take more time and encourage you to do so too. If you would like to submit a post to Godspace please contact Hilary at godspacelight@gmail.com
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