Praying, Suffering, with Psalm 34

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Friday, September 1, 2017

Praying, Suffering, with Psalm 34

When I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in prison, the companion thoughts of suffering and deprivation also come to mind.

I could shake my fists, cry out to heaven and ask God, “Why?” Except, I do not think I would receive any sort of an answer. I know, many righteous people have been unjustly imprisoned throughout the centuries.

Looking at Psalm 34:19, “The righteous person must suffer many things; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Bonhoeffer also meditated and prayed at length over this verse. (I secretly wonder how much comfort he found in it?) “The righteous person suffers because of many things that for others seem only natural and unavoidable. The righteous person suffers because of unrighteousness, because of the senselessness and absurdity of events in the world.” [1]

Senselessness and absurdity. That is certainly true, and has been true for thousands of years.

And yet—and yet—“the Lord delivers him.”

God is always present, all over the world. The righteous person is always with God, no matter where, no matter what. Bonhoeffer had the unshakeable belief that “God allows him to suffer so, in order that he may learn to love God for God’s own sake. In suffering, the righteous person finds God. That is his deliverance.” [2]

I am afraid I am a far weaker person than Pastor Dietrich. I do not know whether I would have been able to suffer such deprivations as he did. I read his writings and am in awe of such faith and devotion. I pray that I may be able to display just a small part of Bonhoeffer’s resilience and faithfulness.

Lord, in Your mercy, help me in my journey through life with You, whether difficult or not. In times of suffering and pain, or times of calm and serenity, You are with me.

@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] Meditating on the Word, Dietrich Bonhöffer, edited by David McI. Gracie. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications, 2000, 88.

[2] Ibid.

Peace and Social Justice, Part Two

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Peace and Social Justice, Part Two

Yesterday evening’s panel discussion at the Muslim Community Center in Morton Grove was a wonderful opportunity to gather together and share insights into different faith streams. Yet, five similar viewpoints on Social Justice. How each of these faith streams—forms of spirituality—religions—has an impact on society and the outworking of kindness, mercy and justice.

As someone invited to be the representative of the Christian point of view, I had specific understandings of Social Justice (from my faith stream). I was fascinated to see how much overlap there was between all five forms of spirituality.

This goes to show how much diverse people of different ethnicities, various cultures, and widely scattered nationalities all around the world have so much in common. All faiths seek to better society, whether in small ways or large, whether dealing with one person or many.

I do not mean to be political. Jesus did His best to steer clear of politics. I really strive to follow His excellent example. I quote from my remarks made yesterday. “Different rabbis or teachers had different opinions on what was the greatest of all commands. Some of these teachers wanted to know what Jesus considered the “most important” of the laws in the Mosaic law code, which was (and is) the official Jewish rule book.

“In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, Jesus does not name one of the “big 10,” the Ten Commandments. Instead, He responds with the Shema. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” from Deuteronomy 6:5-6.

“Jesus does not stop there! No, He makes another definitive statement. “³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Did you follow that? Jesus made “the greatest command” into a two-part command.

“Love God, love others. Two sides of the same coin.

“’When we hear these words, we know that we are close to the center of Christianity, that we are close to the heart of God. The cross of Christ, the most important symbol of the Christian faith, has two dimensions: a vertical love to God and a horizontal love towards our neighbors.” [1]

“The simplicity, truth and wisdom of love is at the heart of the Good News of God, the message of Social Justice. Think about it. If we truly love, what else is necessary?”

@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] ·  “The Hinge, The Two Great Commandments,” Gospel Analysis, Sermons from Seattle, Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.

Following Our Higher Power’s Voice

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Saturday, November 28, 2015

Following Our Higher Power’s Voice

“Happiness is not an accident. It comes from following the spiritual voice found in each of us. This isn’t always easy.” [1]

Many people familiar with the Twelve Steps and the practices of Recovery know about “Do the Next Right Thing.” When clean and sober people are not exactly sure of what to do, this slogan serves as a help and assistance.

I can do that one better. My friend Bill (now, sadly, in that Big Meeting in the sky) had something he would regularly say. “Do the Next Loving Thing.” This always made a great deal of sense to me. God as I understand God (that is, the Christian understanding) had quite a bit to say about loving others.

In fact, God mentions in the Bible that the most important command given in all of the Biblical Law Code is a two-part law: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Loving in the vertical plane, and loving in the horizontal plane, too.

So, following the spiritual voice, following God as I understand God, is staying in ‘conscious contact’ with God. Following Step Eleven, too.

Today is the last day that I will be considering our daily meditation book, Keep It Simple. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent in the Liturgical Year. I’ll be switching gears, and taking a look at what Father Henri Nouwen has to say about our Advent and Christmas journey through the month of December. Oh, and the last two days of November, too.

But for now, I am still listening and meditating on Keep It Simple. I will close with the Action for the Day: “Today, I’ll meditate and listen to my Higher Power’s gentle voice.” [2]

Dear God, help me do the Next Loving Thing. So help me, God.

@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

(also published at http://www.matterofprayer.net

[1] Keep It Simple: Daily Meditations for Twelve-Step Beginnings and Renewal. (Hazelden Meditation Series) (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989), November 29 reading.

[2] Ibid.

Help Me Love Myself, God

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Friday, November 20, 2015

Help Me Love Myself, God

I am sadly familiar with the kinds of lies my insides whisper to me. “You aren’t good enough. You aren’t pretty enough. You aren’t talented enough. You’re not thin enough.”

I have worked on my confidence for years, and I consider it improved. However, my low self-esteem becomes reactivated at the darnedest times. “You won’t be able to do that. Why even try?” and “What a joke! Who would want to listen to you, anyway? You can’t even talk your way out of a paper bag.”

The old-me is like to think this way. Certainly, my self-esteem is much better than it has been, years ago. But, what about my bad habits? What about the problems those habits cause? What about working the Twelve Steps? How do they impact my life?

Ah, loving myself. I need to beat this low self-esteem. But, how?

That is where friends and acquaintances come in. That is where the Twelve Step program helps me. That is when many people working together are so much stronger than one person working as hard as that individual can work.

God, help me. Heal me, inside and out. Please encourage me to continue to lean on others when I become discouraged. Help me to disregard all those lies and twisted truths. God, help me to love myself. And help me to be willing to allow others to love me, too.

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

@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

Loving Someone, Loving my Higher Power

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Sunday, November 15, 2015

Loving Someone, Loving my Higher Power

Today’s reading was even more practical than usual.

When people are caught up in their addiction or compulsion (whatever that is), they are often totally focused on themselves. Their preoccupation with their addiction or compulsion. They often try to fix, manage, or control outcomes. Or, people, places and things.

However, once we are on the recovery road, things radically change. Love becomes a possibility in the life of recovery. When my heart opens up to love God and to love my neighbor as myself, I am living the way God wants me to live.

What is more, when you or I am on the road to recovery, finding God as each of us understand God, miracles can happen. God can come into each person’s life in an extremely personal way. Yes, love is powerful. Yes, my Higher Power loves me, unconditionally. And, recovery from addiction or compulsion is also powerful. With God (or, the Higher Power), there is a solution.

I particularly like the Action for the Day: “I will list three things I love that help me know my Higher Power/God is near me.” [1] That sounds like a worthwhile exercise. Something I can really sink my teeth into.

Dear God, help me to be more loving, to everyone. To anyone who especially needs love, comfort and encouragement, help me offer it freely. And, help me know that You are there, even when it doesn’t seem that way. Lord, in Your mercy, hear my earnest prayers.

@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] Keep It Simple: Daily Meditations for Twelve-Step Beginnings and Renewal. (Hazelden Meditation Series) (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989), November 15 reading.

Thou, Our Everlasting Joy

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Monday, October 26, 2015

Thou, Our Everlasting Joy

I have difficulty with contemplative kinds of things. My mind is just too active. Last month, when I actually tried to pray using contemplative Centering Prayer, I did pray in that way each day in September. However, I did not have as fruitful a month as I have when I used some other prayer styles.

I chose a smaller portion: a piece of a prayer by E.B. Pusey (1800-1882). It concerns “For Thine Is the Kingdom” (Prayer 499, page 147) [1] The prayer is about Contemplation.

“Thou who hast loved us, make us to love Thee./Thou who hast sought us, make us to seek Thee,/Thou who, when lost, didst find us,/ Be Thou Thyself the way,/That we may find Thee/And be found in Thee,/Our only hope, and our everlasting joy.”

I get the feeling that God is the Lover, the Seeker, the Finder. God initiates. That goes along with my experience, as well as my beliefs.

I freely acknowledge that God is named as my Heavenly Parent several times in both the Old and New Testaments. As such, I (or, in several cases, the nation of Israel) happen to be referred to as a child. Hosea 11 even calls the Lord’s child (Israel) a toddler. And, I understand why. I am okay with that.

Dear Lord, I am so sorry I have such difficulty in contemplation. I can’t do it for very long. I know You have made different people for different things. I just know I have very little skill in contemplating and Centering Prayer.

I know some have found what they are good at! That is great. Bless them. I know I can’t center very easily … but thank You some people can. And, I especially thank You that some of these people find great joy and contentment in their centering and contemplation. Bless them.

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

@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] The Oxford Book of Prayer, edited by George Appleton. (New York: Oxford University Press, reissued 2009), 147.

How to Nourish My Soul? With Love.

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Saturday, June 6, 2015

How to Nourish My Soul? With Love.

Growing, nourishing, stretching my soul. All good things to do.

I remember digging in my mother’s garden. Fork up the dirt, turn over the soil, rake until the rich black dirt is prepared for planting. Either plant seeds or replant the vegetable plants. So pretty! So satisfying. Such a memorable feeling.

Just like growing, stretching plants in a garden, so also with my nourished soul. Joan Borysenko mentioned that another way the soul is nourished is when giving and receiving love. Yet a third way is to pull together, in community; what a way to nourish our souls, jointly!

Growth lets me know not only that I am alive, but grief and pain help me understand myself better—or is it more fully?

As Borysenko tells me, in this chapter from Handbook for the Soul, “we can either waste away from our wounds or use them to grow our souls. . . . I have always said that no one heals alone—we heal through and for one another. In Judaism this is referred to as Tikkun Olan, the healing or restoration of the world, a kind of collective soul work.” [1]

Whether separately or together, each of us can care for our souls. I think this is an important aspect to be learned from this chapter. Especially one final way to nourish the soul: self-care, with loving kindness. Taking time, taking care of myself is so important. If I nourish my own internal being, my own soul, I will certainly become a better giver to others.

This self-care, soul-care helps me give more easily, forgive more readily, and love more genuinely. All good things. So, help me, God.

@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] Handbook for the Soul, Richard Carlson and Benjamin Shield, editors. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1995), 46.