PEACE: A Tranquil Moment for Me

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Saturday, March 12, 2016

PEACE: A Tranquil Moment for Me

Another definition from the North Shore Assembly of God in Skokie. I was introduced to a woman who is blessed with the gifts of helps, caring and mercy. I had the opportunity to ask her about her personal definition of PEACE.

Maria thought out loud as she constructed a wonderful definition, followed by a heartfelt explanation. Maria Evans’s personal definition of PEACE is: “a tranquil moment when I can be alone with my thoughts and prayers.”

As we talked further, she explained that she seldom had time to gather her thoughts. She has a good deal of busy-ness in her life. “My husband—I love him dearly—is often talking to me. I seldom have time to myself and my thoughts and prayers.” Maria has a great deal going on in her life. She wishes she could have more tranquil moments. However, she is so grateful what she and her husband have received from God. She is blessed.

Maria, I can relate! I am sometimes infected with that same heart-sickness, that same disease of busy-ness. My life often seems like it’s going in double time, with everything in fast motion. Dear Lord, forgive me for getting so involved in the minutiae of my day-to-day life, and not making time for You. Give me the yearning and desire to always put You first in my life. On my calendar, and in my schedule, too.

In Your mercy, Lord, hear all of our prayers.

@chaplaineliza

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Why not visit my sister blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.   @chaplaineliza And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

The Joy of the Lord

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Monday, December 28, 2015

The Joy of the Lord

One of the so-called mortal sins is acedia—sadness of heart or resignation. Close cousin to depression. I know depression. I have friends and acquaintances who are quite familiar with almost constant sadness of heart, depression, even despair at times.

How is it that we here in the United States can live in such a materially rich time, yet feel so empty? So desperately sad? Boredom doesn’t even touch it. The deep feeling goes much further to the soul’s interior than just that.

Yes, it seems like an insidious disease, almost an unseen plague. And those who are not afflicted do not, and cannot, possibly understand the deep pain. The desperate fear and anxiety. It is truly an inside job. On the interior.

Monastic literature had more than a nodding acquaintance with acedia, though. I feel deeply for those so afflicted, in the centuries past. I pray they had some relief.

Relief can come from God, to some extent. (Not to the exclusion of everything else, though! Please, listen to your doctor or therapist. Please, please.)

As I was saying, joy—deep and abiding joy—can come from God. God delights in giving joy to God’s children. One of the compilers of this book of December meditations writes, “The joy of the Lord has gone through the poverty of the manger and the distress of the cross.” [1]

No easy joy, here, however. A biblical illustration, from several places in Scripture. It is through difficulty and distress that deep emotion goes through fiery trial, as if through a refiner’s fire. We can understand that, to a greater or lesser extent. Let us praise God for God’s presence with us. We celebrate Emmanuel—God with us, indeed, through the poverty of the manger and the distress of the cross.

@chaplaineliza

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

Why not visit my sister blogs, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.   @chaplaineliza And, read my sermons from Pastor, Preacher Pray-er

[1] God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, trans. O.C. Dean, Jr., compiled and edited, Jana Riess (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2010), 72.

How to Heal. In Prayer.

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – January 29, 2015

How to Heal. In Prayer.

More about healing? God wants to heal broken relationships, bruised feelings, imperfect people. And, God can heal actual, physical illness and disease, too.

Sometimes, as C.S. Lewis notes in his book A Grief Observed, a person deals with much more than physical illness. It is somehow magnified by feelings of desperate loneliness, or quiet despair, or sharp pangs of regret. And what about resentment, screwed up so tight, or anger, simmering like a kettle over a high flame on the stovetop.

Yes, God is intimately familiar with all of these afflictions, too.

I was especially intrigued by something Cardinal Joseph Bernardin wrote, shortly before he died. Cardinal Bernardin was the head of all Catholics in the Chicago area for some years. He said, especially in respect to his ministry to cancer sufferers, “the worst suffering is isolation, feeling cut off.” [1] The most profound thing we can do, oftentimes, is just show up.

Rev. Howell gives another example, too. He states, “a friend of mine spent a week in Lourdes, the shrine in France where the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. . . . When my friend returned, I asked her, ‘Did you see any miracles?’ She said, ‘Oh yes, every day.’ … ‘Every day at Lourdes, no matter who you are, or where you are from, or what’s wrong with you, you are welcomed, and loved.’” [2]

Yes, God can be seen, healing from something physical. True. And yes, it can be in some quiet way where the chaplain comes alongside without words—with the ministry of presence, or sitting beside a family in fresh grief and anguish and praying. Or, speaking softly with a senior, encouraging their heart at the sad prospect of a life with limited mobility. I repeat what Rev. Howell said through his friend, “No matter who you are, or where you are from, or what’s wrong with you, you are welcomed, and loved.”

Isn’t that what all this is about? Yes, it would be so nice if the crowds were suddenly healed from all physical infirmity, or healings continued in some stadium-sized venue. But that must not be what God wants. God’s priorities are not the same as our priorities. Not always, anyway.

Yes, Jesus healed, physically. Sometimes in a big way, usually in a public way, occasionally in a quiet way. Not only physical healing, but emotional, spiritual, and psychological healing. Jesus cured relationships, and restored individuals to fellowship with God and with each other. Do you want that for yourself today? Jesus will heal you in the most intimate way possible, so you can enjoy being forever-friends with Him.

And, how awesome is that?

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

Why not visit my sister blog, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.

[1] James C. Howell, The Beautiful Work of Learning to Pray, (Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press: 2003), 89.

[2] Ibid, 90.