Generous in love—God, give grace!
Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.
You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.
Psalm 51: 1-17 The Message
Jun 29, 2010
Jun 23, 2010
God is Not Prozac
Really. It's true. It must be. The current edition of Ladies Home Journal told me so.
The article, entitled Let Us Pray (by Katharine Whittemore), examines the benefits of prayer. The overall question examined in the article is this:
Even when people come from different cultures and different faiths, they can generally agree on this one thing: Prayer helps. But why?
Good question.
Certainly the answer is not that praying guarantees a positive outcome to our requests. Nor is it because the disappointments and stresses of life magically disappear. The helpfulness of prayer is not even necessarily related to having experienced answered prayer in the past.
The magazine article explores a number of possible reasons as to why prayer is helpful. As you would expect, they range from the physical (those who pray tend to have lower blood pressure) to the psychological (lower rates of depression) to the neurological (changing activity in different cortexes of the brain.) The article also notes that these positive outcomes are common to all faiths and even to no faith, but rather a focus on meditation.
So all prayer (or meditation) is equal?
Perhaps.
If, and only if, your criteria of effectiveness is confined to the physical, psychological, and neurological.
Which, of course, ours is not.
The magazine article quotes a rabbi as saying, "If you think about it, prayer connects you to hope."
That is very true.
But also incomplete.
For prayer connects you to far more than just hope.
It connects you to
God.
Jun 13, 2010
Not the God we would have chosen
We would as soon you were stable and reliable.
We would as soon you were predictable
and always the same toward us.
We would like to take the hammer of doctrine
and take the nails of piety
and nail your feet to the floor
and have you stay in one place.
And then we find you moving,
always surprising us,
always coming at us from new directions.
Always planting us
and uprooting us
and tearing all things down
and making all things new.
You are not the God we would have chosen
had we done the choosing,
but we are your people
and you have chosen us in freedom.
We pray for the great gift of freedom
that we may be free towrd you
as you are in your world.
Give us that gift of freedom
that we may move in new places
in obedience and in gratitude.
Thank you for Jesus
who embodied your freedom for all of us. Amen.
Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, (c) 2003, pg 87.
We would as soon you were predictable
and always the same toward us.
We would like to take the hammer of doctrine
and take the nails of piety
and nail your feet to the floor
and have you stay in one place.
And then we find you moving,
always surprising us,
always coming at us from new directions.
Always planting us
and uprooting us
and tearing all things down
and making all things new.
You are not the God we would have chosen
had we done the choosing,
but we are your people
and you have chosen us in freedom.
We pray for the great gift of freedom
that we may be free towrd you
as you are in your world.
Give us that gift of freedom
that we may move in new places
in obedience and in gratitude.
Thank you for Jesus
who embodied your freedom for all of us. Amen.
Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, (c) 2003, pg 87.
Jun 10, 2010
Psalm 139ish
Lord, You know everything about me.
You know when I am at work and when I go home.
You are aware of all of the thoughts that pass through my mind.
You know when I labor in the yard or am relaxing in bed.
You know everything about me.
Before I realize that I am about to speak, you already know what I will say.
I cannot take a step in any direction without Your being there,
Your hand is on my shoulder to guide me.
I believe these truths without any understanding of how they are possible. They are too difficult for me to grasp.
Is there anywhere I could go and not find you?
Any place I could discover where you are not already present?
If I climbed to the top of Mount Everest, you would be there.
If I dove to the deepest part of the oceans, you would be there.
If I flew through the sky like an eagle,
If I traveled to the remotest part of the earth,
Even there I would not be lost from you
You would continue to guide my steps.
If I think I can run and hide
in a place where you cannot find me
I should remember that no such place exists
You are aware of it all
Nothing is hidden from you.
For you created every part of me.
From nothing, you brought me into being.
I am amazed at the complexities of human life
And rejoice that I am made in your image.
Nothing was hidden from you
when the life that is me began.
While I developed within my mother's womb
You watched over me with love.
You knew from before the beginning what my life would entail
The details of what would transpire.
Your thoughts are a precious gift to me.
One that will never end.
They are far beyond my ability to count.
I am never separated from you.
Why do you not destroy those who are opposed to you, God?
I will have nothing to do with them!
They intentionally work against you
And speak of you with disdain.
I feel nothing but disgust for them.
They are beneath contempt.
Examine me, Lord, and reveal the truth about me.
Challenge me and bring to light all my anxieties.
Discover whether evil still resides within me
And guide me toward your eternal truth.
You know when I am at work and when I go home.
You are aware of all of the thoughts that pass through my mind.
You know when I labor in the yard or am relaxing in bed.
You know everything about me.
Before I realize that I am about to speak, you already know what I will say.
I cannot take a step in any direction without Your being there,
Your hand is on my shoulder to guide me.
I believe these truths without any understanding of how they are possible. They are too difficult for me to grasp.
Is there anywhere I could go and not find you?
Any place I could discover where you are not already present?
If I climbed to the top of Mount Everest, you would be there.
If I dove to the deepest part of the oceans, you would be there.
If I flew through the sky like an eagle,
If I traveled to the remotest part of the earth,
Even there I would not be lost from you
You would continue to guide my steps.
If I think I can run and hide
in a place where you cannot find me
I should remember that no such place exists
You are aware of it all
Nothing is hidden from you.
For you created every part of me.
From nothing, you brought me into being.
I am amazed at the complexities of human life
And rejoice that I am made in your image.
Nothing was hidden from you
when the life that is me began.
While I developed within my mother's womb
You watched over me with love.
You knew from before the beginning what my life would entail
The details of what would transpire.
Your thoughts are a precious gift to me.
One that will never end.
They are far beyond my ability to count.
I am never separated from you.
Why do you not destroy those who are opposed to you, God?
I will have nothing to do with them!
They intentionally work against you
And speak of you with disdain.
I feel nothing but disgust for them.
They are beneath contempt.
Examine me, Lord, and reveal the truth about me.
Challenge me and bring to light all my anxieties.
Discover whether evil still resides within me
And guide me toward your eternal truth.
Jun 4, 2010
Pro Sports Oddity
A funny thing happened at the ball park this week.
The scene was tense and the players supremely focused and competitive. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, expectant, and waiting to roar. It was the ninth inning. Two outs. So far, a perfect game had been pitched. No walks. No hits. One batter to go. Only one more out needed to make history.
The pitcher pitches, the batter bats, the ball is fielded and thrown to first. The batter appears to be out and for a split second there is celebration. The joy quickly turns to disbelief, however, as the umpire calls the runner safe. The pitcher's teammates protest loudly, some very loudly, on his behalf. But the call stands.
No perfect game.
Were the story to stop there, it would be newsworthy enough. However, the most remarkable parts had yet to occur.
The umpire publicly admitted that he made a mistake
The umpire apologized to the pitcher.
The pitcher's teammate who protested too loudly apologized to the umpire.
The umpire had the courage to work the game the very next night.
The crowd treated the umpire with a reasonable amount of respect.
The pitcher accepted the umpire's apology.
The pitcher shook the umpire's hand.
The umpire cried.
Such public humility is remarkably refreshing. For a change, the news contained a story that displayed positive human qualities. The only part of the story that is somewhat sad is the fact that the story of people acting so maturely strikes us all as remarkable.
Thankfully, the everyday interactions of most of us are not reported on the evening news or written about in opinion columns and blogs around the world. But what if they were? Would we show up as the self-focused, over-paid athlete with an entitlement mentality that we are so used to hearing about? Or would we be the apologetic umpire with tears in his eyes who is hurting over the costs of his error?
May we seek to live a life of humility not because someone might be watching, but because it was the model employed by Jesus Christ.
The scene was tense and the players supremely focused and competitive. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, expectant, and waiting to roar. It was the ninth inning. Two outs. So far, a perfect game had been pitched. No walks. No hits. One batter to go. Only one more out needed to make history.
The pitcher pitches, the batter bats, the ball is fielded and thrown to first. The batter appears to be out and for a split second there is celebration. The joy quickly turns to disbelief, however, as the umpire calls the runner safe. The pitcher's teammates protest loudly, some very loudly, on his behalf. But the call stands.
No perfect game.
Were the story to stop there, it would be newsworthy enough. However, the most remarkable parts had yet to occur.
The umpire publicly admitted that he made a mistake
The umpire apologized to the pitcher.
The pitcher's teammate who protested too loudly apologized to the umpire.
The umpire had the courage to work the game the very next night.
The crowd treated the umpire with a reasonable amount of respect.
The pitcher accepted the umpire's apology.
The pitcher shook the umpire's hand.
The umpire cried.
Such public humility is remarkably refreshing. For a change, the news contained a story that displayed positive human qualities. The only part of the story that is somewhat sad is the fact that the story of people acting so maturely strikes us all as remarkable.
Thankfully, the everyday interactions of most of us are not reported on the evening news or written about in opinion columns and blogs around the world. But what if they were? Would we show up as the self-focused, over-paid athlete with an entitlement mentality that we are so used to hearing about? Or would we be the apologetic umpire with tears in his eyes who is hurting over the costs of his error?
May we seek to live a life of humility not because someone might be watching, but because it was the model employed by Jesus Christ.
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