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.
by Jan Blencowe
Mushroom Group by Jan Blencoe
It is the model of the Trinity, that beautiful dance of Divine Persons that inspires my favorite mode of prayer, dialog with the natural world. I envision that beautiful Dance as one of perfect communication. I imagine it as moving between thoughts, words, movements, intentions, and actions. I sense a wisdom, that anticipates, responds, and exists in an harmonious union. A perfect communication grounded in love and holy motive, never misunderstood, never duplicitous, always and eternally pure and truthful.
Of course, I must rely heavily on the Spirit to sanctify and translate my humble, earthy prayers into something beautiful that will delight the heart of God. Since this lovely picture of the Trinity’s Dance of Communication remains firmly locked in the world of my own thoughts, that is to say, “stuck in my head”, I’ve had to find more embodied ways to pray, ways that use all those things that were deemed good at the very beginning.
I am the archetypal nature child, and therefore head straight out the door and into the glorious handiwork of God when I want to pray. Nature follows the existence ordained for it perfectly. We on the other hand have the blessing of choice. The choices we make snake through our lives like a labyrinth, sometimes moving us closer, sometimes further from God. I pray we will all, at the end, find ourselves in the center of Love.
The seasonal cycles that God has built into our world hold endless fascination, comfort and wisdom for me. In my nature journals I record those cycles, which in itself is a form of earthy, creative, embodied prayer. Currently, in my journal I am turning my attention to the beginning of the dying year. The season of the dying year always speaks volumes to me and generally produces a time of deep prayer in my life.
This season, unlike any other, brings to my attention Jesus’ words “Timeless truth I speak to you: Unless a grain of wheat falls and dies in the ground, it remains alone, but if it dies, it yields much fruit.”. That translation is from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English, and I love it because it translates the opening words not as Truly or Verily, but as Timeless truth. The cycle of life-death-rebirth is for me the crux of the matter when it comes to the spiritual life, and it’s in the pageant of seasons that I see that played out most vividly.
At this time of year I find myself praying with mushrooms. They’re abundant in the woods in September. I marvel that all year they have been there hidden from sight beneath the forest floor. I pause to remember that the Spirit’s work in me is also always going on. Sometimes it is hidden but when the Spirit softens and moistens my heart and I am ripe to receive, the work is revealed, just as mushrooms appear suddenly when the weather dampens and the season ripens.
During all of the hidden phase of their lives mushrooms are absorbing nutrients through threadlike roots from decaying trees. In the same way I am always absorbing wisdom and encouragement from the saints, those great towering trees of our faith, who remain alive but have now passed from this world. I give thanks for the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds me. Later on when the first frosts come the mushrooms will once again die back and be hidden in the soil feeding the roots of nearby plants and trees. They will literally be recycled and take on new form.
A new crop of mushrooms will appear briefly again in early autumn. Life-death-rebirth. These observations lead me to pray that my own brief appearance on this earth will be nourished by those faithful souls that surround me. When my body perishes and my flesh and bones are hidden in the earth, I pray that they will nourish the soil. I pray that the words I have spoken and the deeds that I have done in my lifetime will nourish those that remain and those that come after.
Like the mushrooms that are recycled into trees I ponder with awe and wonder the reality that I too will put off this mortal body and be clothed with an immortal one. Even more mysterious is the knowledge that we have already put off the old and become new creations in Christ. So on earth as it is in Heaven, I pray with the earth through the turning of the year finding spiritual truths in nature, praying with mushrooms and trees and all that is good.
Today’s post is part of our September Creative Prayer Series.
Prayer is waking up to the presence of God no matter where I am or what I am doing. Barbara Brown Taylor An Altar in the World.
There is a difference between prayer and prayers. What stirs our creativity to pray without ceasing? Here is a list of the best books we have found.
Bill, Brent and Booram, Beth: Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God.
Brazzeal, David: Pray Like a Gourmet: Creative Ways to Feed Your Soul.
Cameron, Julia: The Artist’s Way
MacBeth, Sybil: Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God.
Sine, Christine: Return to Our Senses: Reimagining How We Pray.
Stanley, Kelly O’Dell: Praying Upside Down: A Creative Prayer Experience to Transform Your time With God.
Scandrette, Mark: Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love.
Taylor, Barbara Brown: An Altar in the World; A Geography of Faith.
Tutu, Desmond and Mpho: The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World.
Valters Paintner, Christine: Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice.
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