by Lilly Lewin
Here in Middle Tennesee public schools started in early August, my friends on the west coast just started the last week of August, and my Michigan and Minnesota friends start school the way we all did once upon a time: the day after labor day. Even if we don’t have kids in school we are all in the season of transition. We in the western hemisphere are going from our summer mindsets into fall activity. How do we get rhythm back? How can we start well or begin again to connect with God even if our schedules are getting busy? I believe in praying along the way and using every day things I see to help me connect with God and encourage me to pray.
I create prayer spaces for a living, and I often get inspired for my prayer experiences and prayer station ideas by going to the dollar store and places like Target. Jesus used the things he saw everyday and things his followers saw every day to teach lasting visual and symbolic lessons. So why can’t we use things we see everyday to remind us to pray? I believe we can so let’s get creative with this!
One of my favorite back to school prayer tools are subtraction and addition flash cards. You know, the kind that teaches students math facts like 2+2=4 or 6-3=3. You can use these at your dinner table with your family, with a small group, a youth group, Sunday School class, or even by yourself.
You just need to buy a pack of subtraction and addition flash cards at the dollar store or Target, and each person needs a sharpie marker or other pen to use to write on their card.
Everyone gets two cards, one subtraction and one addition.
Have each person (you too) hold a subtraction card in their hand.
Ask your group members or family members to think about their lives right now, think about their calendars, their day, month etc. What things might they need to subtract from their lives that might be getting in the way of peace, joy, creativity? Things which add stress or cause frustration or even sleepless nights, or things that are robbing them of relationships. You can modify this question according to the ages of your group. Give them space to think about this. And you can even give a couple of examples, like subtracting arguing or complaining or subtracting screen time when you could be having a conversation or doing homework. Then ask them “What things do you need to subtract from your life that might be getting in the way of your relationship with God?” Give them time to talk to God about this. Have them write down on the subtraction card, the things that they want to subtract in order to have more space in their lives and more time with God. If you are doing this with your small group or youth group, have them take home their subtraction cards as a tangible visual aid to remind them of what they need to subtract in order to have a better relationship with God in the days ahead.
At the end of the month, or the semester you might get the cards out again and have everyone reflect on how their subtraction process has gone. Personally I am in need of subtracting time on my phone checking email and instagram right before bed!
You can check out other prayer ideas and even download an entire prayer experience using school supplies at freerangeworship.com. I also have a great prayer experience using the tables where Jesus sat called “at the table with Jesus” that is a great resource for prayer stations as we head towards Thanksgiving. Both of these kits include prayer stations that can be done all together as in a sacred space prayer room or they can be used individually after a weekly teaching or sermon.
Over the years on both Godspace and our legacy blog on Mustard Seed Associates, we’ve explored creative ways to pray and creative spiritual practices. This week’s top ten list is a collection of these posts. Some of these are from a “Spiritual Practices” series on Godspace.
As I re-read these posts I realized how so much of spiritual practice is really a form of prayer. A big part of why we get into prayer ruts is that we narrow our understanding of what prayer is. We need to expand our vision and explore our imaginations. Prayer is a conversation with God. Starting from that basic premise our avenues into prayer are nearly limitless.
As you explore these posts you’ll see that I’ve chosen a wide variety of spiritual practices. Not all of these have obvious connections to creative prayer, but sit with them. What avenues to new forms of prayer open up to you as you read these posts? You might consider keeping a notepad nearby and jotting down ideas for new ways to pray as you explore the possibilities. Try something new… then share your experience!
- The Spirituality of the Long Distance Runner, Steven Fouch
- Spiritual Practices for Sitting in Front of the Screen, Lynne Baab
- Thirsting for Coffee with God, Richard Dahlstrom
- Creating an Advent Prayer Garden, Christine Sine
- The Spiritual Practice of Taking a Shower, Maryellen Young
- The Spirituality of Drinking Chinese Tea, Andy Wade
- Washing Dishes as a Spiritual Practice, Tim Dyer / Dan Cooper
- Is Breathing a Spiritual Practice?, Christine Sine
- Coloring as a Spiritual Practice, Danielle Grubb Shroyer
My husband Tom and I are in the midst of a major house remodel. We are refurbishing the kitchen, redesigning our hangout room into a bed sitting room and converting our current bedroom into a guest room. It is both exhilarating and exhausting. Along the way I find myself reflecting a lot on the repurposing and refurbishing God is doing in all our lives.
Before the remodel
Refurbishing.
We love watching house remodelling on T.V. but always get frustrated when the wreckers come in and destroy perfectly good cabinets. Our 70 year old cabinets, were good and sturdy even though the hinges were breaking and doors were falling to pieces. Now we have beautiful new doors and fresh veneer on the cabinets.
Question: How often I wonder do we want to come in with a sledge hammer to someone’s life, even to our own life, and totally demolish it it when God is saying no, no no, there is perfectly good structure here. All it needs is some sanding, polishing and refurbishing?
Preserving
One part of the kitchen we did not touch was the backsplash behind the counters which is made from tiles we purchased in Jerusalem on our honeymoon 24 years ago. They are made by Armenian Christians who have used the same patterns for hundreds of years. One of the challenges the remodellers faced was ripping out the old counter without breaking any of these tiles. Then they had to finding matching tiles for the new countertop. Not easy 24 years later.
Tiles are fragile. At took more work to preserve them, but now they stand out like new.
Question: Some things from the past need to be held on to. What aspects of your life and history are a little fragile yet need to be preserved? How would God like to enhance and highlight these so that they stand out more beautifully in your life?
New sink and backsplash
Repurposing
Our old counter tops were butcher’s block made from beautiful old maple wood. We have stashed them out in the garage with the hope that we can find someone to remake them into a table for our bed/sitting room when it is completed. The moment we decided to remove them I started thinking about ways I could repurpose them, and if I didn’t want them I knew that one of the construction workers also had his beady eyes on them knowing that with a little imagination and creativity they could be made beautiful again.
Question: Are there aspects of your life that needed to be repurposed? Perhaps you have found healing for past traumatic experiences. You have ripped them out and stashed away the raw materials, but is it time to take them out and repurpose them?
Recreating
When we were on vacation on Mayne Island Canada a couple of weeks ago, I found a bone on the beach. When I posted a photo on Instagram and Facebook it stimulated a lively discussion about its possible origins. Probably from a dolphin, it has obviously been bleached by the water and the sun for many years before it was washed up for me to find. It is the centrepoint of my current meditation garden photographed above.
As I see here contemplating it today the words of Ezekiel 37:5, 6 when the prophet sits in a valley of dry bones and God asks him: Son of man, do you think these bones can live? then says:
“Dry bones, I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. I will attach muscles and tendons to you, cause flesh to grow over them, and cover you with skin. I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. After this happens, you will know that I am the Eternal.”
Question: I have repurposed this bone, but in the renewal of all things what I wonder will God be able to create from it? When God once more breathes life into it what will the renewed, restored creature look like?
Sit quietly for a few minutes and think about your own life. Do you feel you are sitting in a valley of dry bones or somewhere like our old dilapidated kitchen?
- What do you think God wants to refurbish?
- What does God want to preserve?
- What does God want to repurpose?
- What does God want to give new life to and recreate?
God, we remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
We know that you remember them too, and are keeping them in your care.
We acknowledge the pervasiveness of violence in our world:
Sometimes it explodes with intent to kill
And has its success, as on 9/11.
And sometimes it creeps in subtly:
In attitudes and mindsets, in worldviews and passing words.
We find it even here in our own hearts.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and restore us to justice.
We rely upon your mercy.
Grant that we may forgive those who have committed atrocities against us
And remember them also to your merciful love.
We hear your words to us: “Do not resist an evil person;” (1)
We are baffled and astonished at this instruction.
We have no paradigm for understanding a peaceable kingdom,
Other than your example.
Console us in our grief, Oh Lovely One.
Speak to us in our confusion.
Guide our feet on the path of peace. (2)
Be to us a light in darkness,
A lamp of peace drawing us lovingly in.
Amen
(1) Matthew 5:39
(2) Luke 1: 78-79
by Michael Moore,
In April of 1977 (my junior year in High School), I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC and New York City as a part of a YMCA “Know Your Government Seminar” in my hometown. This faded picture was taken as we took the Ferry to the Statue of Liberty where we were able to climb up to the top of Lady Liberty. While in the Big Apple, we attended an off-Broadway play (Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with God), visited Times Square, and saw a multitude of other sites. We had a choice to either go to the top of the Empire State Building or the World Trade Center. I chose to go to the top of the iconic Empire State Building.
I distinctly remember thinking that on my next trip to NYC I could go to the top of the World Trade Center. In 1984, I flew into NYC to attend a College and Seminary Relations National Committee meeting at Stoney Point Conference Center in Upstate New York. Sadly, the itinerary didn’t include spending time in the City and I wasn’t able to take the opportunity to go to the top of the World Trade Center.
Fast forward again to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was the Chaplain instructor at the Air Combat Command Desert Warfare Training Center at Indian Springs Auxiliary Air Field an hour north of Nellis. We were in between courses and I was driving to the gym for morning physical training. I was listening to National Public Radio when a puzzling piece came on. The announcer said that an airplane had struck the World Trade Center. Immediately after that, my cell phone rang and it was my commander on the other end of the line. Our entire unit was being recalled and the Threat Condition had been elevated to Delta which meant the base was under imminent threat of attack. This wasn’t an exercise and when I asked the commander if this had anything to do with a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, he said “what in the hell are you talking about?”
For me, as a US Air Force Chaplain, that day changed the rest of my life and my career. When I first went on Active duty with the Air Force, Iraq had just invaded Kuwait and forces were building up for Operation Desert Storm. This was something completely different. Going back home, I put on my uniform, grabbed my gear, and kissed my wife good-bye. Life had changed and we were at war with an enemy we didn’t really understand or know at that point. In 2005, I would find myself in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. When I retired in 2011, we were still at war and hunting for Bin Laden. Life had indeed changed for anyone in uniform and it would never be the same again.
When I think about the missed opportunity to go to the top of the World Trade Center, I don’t think about my own loss but rather about the lives of all those who died that day in New York City, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, PA. I also think about the survivors of those horrific attacks (including many colleagues I had served with who survived the Pentagon attack). I also think about the thousands who have died in the years since the vicious attacks on that September day in 2001 which changed the world. In the years since the attacks, I either participated in or conducted nine remembrance services all around the world. Each time I prepare to fly somewhere and go through security, I remember. Each time I reflect on the horrors perpetrated in the name of vengeance or hatred or bigotry or fear, I remember.
And with those remembrances, I pray the prayer of St Francis of Assisi… “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; 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; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.”
Today, there is so much hatred, bigotry, xenophobia, and fear which runs rampant all around this world. While I may be disappointed that I didn’t get to the top of the Twin Towers back in 1977, what disappoints me more is that this world and my country has moved towards darkness and fear instead of hope and light and peace. As I lead worship at Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado where I am the pastor, I will pause to remember… to pray that I may be an instrument of God’s peace and reconciliation in a world gone mad.
by Esther Hizsa
“Cat” by Kevin Dooley. Used with permission.
We have a wide range of emotion in us. While we tend to welcome feelings such as joy, peace and wonder, we aren’t so crazy about anger, disappointment or resentment. We’d rather ignore, fix or bury them. But it’s good to pay attention to those unsettling feelings and listen to what they are saying.
“Why would I want to do that?” you may ask. “Won’t that get me into trouble or make me feel worse?”
Perhaps you recall this train from Campus Crusade’s Four Spiritual Laws. Fact is the engine, Faith is the coal car; and Feeling, the caboose. The point of the illustration is that Christians need to rely on the truth of God’s word to guide them no matter what they are feeling. “The train will run with or without a caboose,” the booklet explains.
Four Spiritual Laws by Campus Crusade
This is helpful advice for new believers who experience emotions that can derail their unseasoned faith. But as we mature, we need to take another look at the feeling caboose. We still don’t want it driving the train, but we have to stop uncoupling it from our lives. Our feelings, even the unpleasant ones, are holy ground. We can encounter God in them.
To do that, we must first become aware of God’s presence. St.Theophan the Recluse, a nineteenth century Russian Orthodox priest, said: “To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you.” (Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey into Meditative Prayer by Richard J. Foster p.35) So begin there with your mind. Imagine yourself meeting Christ in the core of your being. Stand before him. Look at him looking at you with love.
In his loving presence, tell Jesus about the event that incited the strong feeling you experience. It may help to picture the emotion as an angry cat, hair-raised and pacing.
Now name the feeling. For example, it could be jealousy or loneliness. Don’t judge it or analyze it. Just let it hiss and meow there with you and Jesus. When there is a bit of space between you and your feeling, ask it what it wants to tell you. You may hear something like “I feel invisible when other people get the attention I crave” or “There’s something wrong with me; that’s why I’m alone.”
Watch how Jesus responds when he hears what your feelings say. Notice his compassion. What does he do and say next? Underneath your words is a longing Jesus wants to fill.
Once you’ve been with Jesus there, you’ll find your feisty feeling curled up in your lap, as harmless as a kitten. And you, having encountered the living God, will be transformed.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
– Psalm 139: 7,8 (NIV)
Thanks to Jeff Imbach who taught me this in Living from the Heart.
© Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim, 2014.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without permission from Esther Hizsa is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used provided there is a link to the original content and credit is given as follows: © Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim 2013, 2014 http://www.estherhizsa.wordpress.com.
This post is part of the September theme: Let’s get creative with our prayers.
What might it look like to pray with all our senses? This question gnawed at me as I was preparing for our annual Celtic Prayer Retreat and thinking about designing a new prayer trail. Our theme for the retreat was “Celebrating the Goodness of God with All the Saints”. We are indeed “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1). As I wrote in an earlier post, even creation surrounds us, giving testimony to the goodness of God. I wanted this prayer trail to open all our senses to the world around us, to help us to listen deeply, to hear with all our being the whispers of God.
If you are able you might want to read this while sitting in a park, walking a trail and stopping periodically along the way to pray, or while sitting in a garden. If it’s helpful, you can click on each picture to get the full view. While I haven’t tried this yet, it might be interesting to walk into your neighborhood or even downtown in your city and go through these prayers. If you do, please comment below and share you experience! Most importantly, don’t rush. Relax, breathe, and release your senses, and your imagination, to God. The Holy Spirit will take it from there. Enjoy!
1. Raise your dominant hand, index finger to the sky. While making a circling motion with your finger/hand, Pray:
Circle me, Lord. Keep hope within, and despair without.
Circle me, Lord. Keep peace within, and worry without.
Circle me, Lord. Keep love within, and hatred without.
Circle me, Lord. Keep courage within, and fear without.
Circle me, Lord. Keep light within, and darkness without.
As I walk this path, circle us all with your love, protection and grace.
2. Pick up a rock, hold it in your non-dominant hand:
- Feel its texture.
- Observe its color.
- How might this rock symbolize some area of your life?
- Give thanks.
3. Feel the earth beneath your feet:
- Can you sense its unevenness?
- Can you feel the force of your weight in your legs, your feet?
- Can you sense the earth supporting you?
- Reflect on the truth that out of earth you were formed.
- Give thanks.
4. Gaze through the trees to the sky above:
- What do you see?
- What obscures your vision?
- What emotions are evoked as you stand under this canopy of God’s creation?
- Give thanks.
5. Slowly observe the creation around you – take in 360*:
- Surrounded by creation, can you also sense being surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses”?
- This path is a circle around the center of our retreat. How are you part of the great cloud of witnesses with the people gathered here?
6. What is this rock you are carrying?
- Do you still have it?
- What things in your life are like this rock, you carry them around, perhaps even forget you’re carrying them, but they are always there?
7. Slowly breathe in deeply… slowly exhale all the way.
- Slowly breathe in again. Can you taste and smell the creation around you?
- Slowly exhale, giving thanks to God for the gift of creation.
- Slowly breathe in again. As you breathe in, thank God for the gift of sustaining breath.
- As you slowly exhale, thank God for inviting you to participate in giving life to others.
8. Close your eyes and listen:
- How many different sounds can you hear?
- How many can you identify?
- Give thanks for the voice of creation praising its maker.
9. Stop for a moment and feel the air:
- Does it feel hot? Cold? Warm?
- Can you feel a breeze?
- Close your eyes and remember. Does this temperature evoke any particular memories?
10. Circle Prayer:
Circle me, God, with the great cloud of witnesses. Keep hope within and despair without
Circle me, God, with deep, spiritual friendships. Keep love within and fear without.
Circle me, God, with the beauty of your creation. Keep stewardship within and exploitation without.
As I re-enter the gathered community, circle us, God, keep fellowship within and division without.
The invitation below was written as part of our sharing opportunities at the retreat.
* If it seems fitting, place your rock in a pile on the Alter. Together we create a stone pile of remembrance, an “Ebenezer” – “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12). Each stone represents something different, perhaps a joy, perhaps a brokenness. This pile together represents our gathered presence with our varied strengths, weaknesses, hopes and fears. We are the body of Christ, each one a part, together rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses carrying together, in Christ, the full array of life’s experiences.
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