Prayer, and Activism

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Prayer, and Activism

How refreshing, to have Father Nouwen actually come right out and say that thinks all Christians ought to be activists. So different from the attitude I commonly see among the Christians I usually hang out with. These worthy people often try their best to be “good Christians.” However, these good folks—long-time faithful folks—just do not know how to challenge the status quo. The same-old, same-old has become familiar, comfortable, and well-worn.

Fr. Nouwen talks of a modern-day prophet, making us “suspect that someone has passed by who is worth getting to know.” [1] People are fascinated by these prophets. Strong, with an inner freedom, independent, able to stand apart from and above the fray. (At least, that is according to Father Nouwen.)

How I wish I could hang out with one of these prophets. Truthfully, I am afraid I couldn’t keep up with them. I imagine someone charismatic, but with such appealing characteristic that many would find him—or her—like a magnet. Father Nouwen mentions “They listen attentively and speak with a self-possessed authority but don’t easily get rushed or excited. In everything they say and do, it seems as though there is a lively vision before them which those who bear them can intimate, but not see.” [2] Wow! It is almost as if I have the vague impression, tentatively feeling as if blindfolded or in the dark, I wish I could actually have a relationship with such a prophet, such a luminary.

I wish…I wish…I wish. I can’t meet a person like this just by wishing. I suppose I need to try to be that activist, that prophetic individual, where I am and in what I do. On a daily basis of striving and trying, I know I could never be such a paragon as Fr. Nouwen describes. However, I can try my best to be a little ore Christ-like, be a little better Christ-follower.

Didn’t Jesus buck the status quo? Isn’t that what Henri Nouwen calls all of us to? He suggests needing “to work out a new world, the outlines of which they see and which appeal to them so much that even the fear of death no longer has a decisive power over them.” [3]

Dear Lord, really? Oh, Lord. That is such a difficult thing, such a challenging attitude to have. Well, if I do set out to follow Jesus, I may have to give up my life. Thus, the fear of death [ought not to have] a decisive power over me…

Dear Lord, help me to follow You, as best I can. Please, Lord.

@chaplaineliza

 

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Why not visit my companion blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.  #PursuePEACE. My Facebook page, Pursuing Peace – Thanks! And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

[1] With Open Hands: Bring Prayer into Your Life, Henri J. M. Nouwen (United States of America: Ave Maria Press, 2005), 105.

[2] Ibid, 108.

[3] Ibid, 110.

Strangers Here On Earth, God

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Monday, January 29, 2018

Strangers Here On Earth, God

What a strange thing. So many people in the Bible considered themselves strangers, sojourners in a strange land. I had never noticed that before!

That feeling of being out of place? Awkward? Strangers, not belonging in a situation or a place?

I am a stranger here on earth,

Do not hide Your commandments from me.

Intellectually, I realize this feeling is more widespread than some people think. Abraham, Isaac, Moses: all felt like this But, all of these mentions in the Bible? And, by King David, no less! He was one of the last people I would expect to feel this way, with his charismatic personality and charming good looks.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer mentioned that he, too, was a stranger and a sojourner here on earth. However, this strangeness and wandering as a sojourner is no reason to neglect the call of God. God can still call me. It doesn’t matter whether I answer to Bonhoeffer, or the Catholic faith, a Protestant denomination.

I am here on this earth as a person who follows God’s Word. To the best of my ability. However, there are those who pray as pilgrims in a strange land. “For those who have become strangers on earth, according to God’s will and his calling, there is really only one thought that can fill them with dread—that they might no longer recognize God’s will, no longer know what God require of us.

What does God require? How do we, as strangers and sojourners, possibly present God with anything possible that God could want. Remarkably, the last words in this psalm   anyone would expect. Do I fear that the promises of God could be wallpapered over? Scary thought, indeed. Holy God, blessed God, help me continue to follow.

@chaplaineliza

 

Like what you read? Disagree? Share your thoughts with your loved ones and continue the conversation.

Why not visit my companion blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.  #PursuePEACE. My Facebook page, Pursuing Peace – Thanks! And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er