Tuesday, July 16, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Praying for heaven’s sake
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
At our spiritual directors’ support group we shared paraphrases of the Lord’s Prayer. The night before I woke up after several hours of good sleep and then couldn’t stop thinking about all the unfinished business in my past, present and future. After we saw Inside Out 2 I began asking friends about their anxiety. Sometimes they asked me about mine. How does it come on me? What do I do?
A wind from the east is shattering the ships of Tarshish.
I remembered the early morning. One worry hit me after another, like pellets from a shotgun shell. No time to resolve anything, just feel overwhelmed by all of them at once. When I finally got up and out of bed, I listened for awhile to James Finley leading me along the “Path to the Palace of Nowhere.” Someone said Jim Finley has the voice of a late night FM radio announcer, quiet, peaceful, honest, inviting.
He invited me to thank God for all the little shotgun pellets, every one of them, to give them over to God and not worry about the certainty that more were coming any minute now. These times of helplessness will turn my heart toward Home.
In my counseling I remember offering depressed and anxious folks an enactment, which helps me now. You can imagine it, or you can actually do it.
You start with a bucket of ashes. Then you sit down in the middle of the floor on a small rug, and pour the ashes over your head. Maybe if you can, tear your clothes a bit. Then just sit there. If someone will sit with you, that’s even better, as long as they don’t say anything, just listen. You, on the other hand, must talk as much as you want.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Here’s my paraphrase:
This is the world you made for us, Father. You have made it and all of us holy by your creative touch.
Jesus brought the kingdom of heaven here with his presence, his miracles, his preaching, his death and resurrection. When I close my eyes, open them again, Lord, to your kingdom come, where your will is always done.
As my body wears out and I feel diminished, remind me that the food and health you provide is always enough. I can depend on that.
You have released me from the prison of my sin, now let me receive that release and pass it on to others. We are all your children, none of us slaves or servants, only children who cannot wait to serve.
My temptations are many, but when I look to you I am free from all of them. Your yoke is easy, and your burden is light. Let me look and see, let me get under your yoke with you and not look away. What looks lighter and more free is NOT.
I am corrupted by power and glory. You are not, because yours is the true power, in the kingdom you made. I have tried to remake it over and over, and that corrupts me every time. I must not seek your glory for myself, and when I do it anyway, I repent and turn back to you. Yours is the glory, forever and ever.
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
(Isaiah 7, Psalm 48, Psalm 95, Matthew 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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