Prayer of Examen

One helpful tool for reflective prayer is the Daily Examen developed by St. Ignatious of Loyola. Here is a simplified version to try during this advent season.

1. Become aware of God's presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Look toward tomorrow.

During this advent season, may I adopt a rhythm of watchfulness and prayer, attention and reflection.
Come, Lord Jesus, come.

The reason

A story --
A newlywed husband watched his wife fix pot roast for Sunday dinner. Week after week, she would cut off each end of the roast and toss the ends away before she cooked it. Finally, curiosity got the better of him and he asked why she did that.
"Well, that's the way my mama fixed pot roast," she said. "I don't know why she did it, but her pot roasts were the best."
"Maybe we should ask your mama her recipe," he hesitantly suggested.
So, next time the new bride talked to her mama she said, "Mama, what's the reason for throwing away the ends of the pot roast?"
Mama said, "Well, I don't know why you do it. I did it to make the roast fit in my pan."

Reminder: Always find the reason behind the action to see if it makes sense. No blind following, even if the leader is trustworthy.

A good girl doesn't.......

1. Smoke
2. Drink
3. Swear
4. Bleach her hair
5. Ride motorcycles
6. Have a tattoo
7. Skip school
8. Skip church
9. Have a hicky
10. Attend auto races
11. Go to fortune tellers at carnivals
12. Question authority
13. Have a baby before she's married

This was how I defined being a good girl when I was growing up in the 60's. These are some of the things that I could not do if I wanted to be a good girl. Some of these seem silly to me now. Most are things I still wouldn't do, but don't define goodness or badness to me. I wonder how the youth of today would finish the sentence. "A good girl doesn't........."

A prayer for today

"Faithful Spirit of truth, how many times have you left messages on the doorstep of my life and I failed to notice? Increase my awareness of your powerful presence and open each package you bring to me. Amen."

On vacation

I'm taking a vacation from work. This is sabbath for me. It is a time for me to change the pace of moving, change my location, change my thinking so that perhaps I can see things from God's point of view.

This doesn't mean that I'm just sitting around doing nothing, but it means that I'm doing things I don't normally do on days when I go to the office. I'm spending more time reading and listening to the wind in the trees. I'm taking care of little errands that I've postponed for too long. Yesterday, the cats got shaved at the vet. (They look funny now!) Today I made a jello salad for tonight's supper and then I cleaned out a drawer and found old pictures. It gives me time to reflect on events of the past. I usually don't see where God has been at work in my life until I look back at what has been. Tomorrow the heating and a/c service person is coming. Friday the basement guy comes.

None of this is very exciting stuff unless I do it intentionally waiting for God to direct my actions. Did God tell me to make jello with pears in it? Well, no..... God doesn't get involved in the minutiae, but God directs me to love and give to others. If I decide to follow that command by making jello salad for the folks at Wednesday night church, well so be it.

So, I wonder what else God has in mind for me today............

Wednesday night church

"I think this is kind of a funny story about last night's church.

As soon as I entered the fellowship hall, Dennis came running over to me. 'Nancy, you've GOT to pray!' he said. So, I said ok and waited to hear what the emergency was all about. He went on to say, 'Pastor Jann isn't here, so you've got to say the prayer before we eat.' I said ok, but went to check with others to see what the plan was. Justina and David said they thought that was a fine plan. David would quiet the crowd, but I should pray since it was requested. I went to the kitchen to pray with those folks first. Then, I asked for prayer requests from the folks and hands shot up to pray for Shirley, for Roger, for a van that transports some of the folks. We prayed for Bill and for Garry. We prayed for travel mercies for Rev Jann, too.

I reminded folks to wash their tables. Dennis seemed a little put out that I asked folks to do that because he thinks that's his job. But I told him the floor also needed vaccuuming and the trash taken out, so he allowed it. After I finished my tray, I got a bucket to wash my table. Dennis was right there telling me he'd wash the table and he didn't want me to fall. He told me my job was to preach and his job was to wash tables. I told him I wasn't a preacher, but he could wash the table. He said, 'To us, you're a preacher.'

So, that was my evening. Just a reminder that God works thru even the most cracked pots!"

Doctors, Hospitals, Manure and Ponies

Rand had surgery April 9 after about 6 weeks of all sorts of other treatments. We spent many hours in waiting rooms and hospitals, watching bad TV and drinking stale coffee. In the midst of that, we did find blessings in the oddest places.

I'm reminded of a story (and I told this in church recently when we had a Holy Humor Sunday.)
Little Johnnie was annoyingly cheerful and optimistic. If the family had plans for a picnic, but it stormed, he was cheerful. If he received an ugly sweater for a Christmas present, he gushed over it. If he was served lima beans for supper, he gobbled them up with a relish and asked for seconds. His family had enough of Johnnie's cheerfulness. His birthday was coming soon and so the family decided that they'd fix him once and for all. They had the back yard filled to the brim with manure. Nasty, smelly, yucky. There was no way he could be happy about that birthday present they figured.Yet, on Johnnie's birthday, when they took him out to show him this "present", he was soooo very excited. His eyes just danced and he jumped right into the middle of the manure and started digging around. His family was confused and finally asked how he could be so happy about a yard full of manure.Johnnie replied, "With all this manure, I just know there's got to be a pony around here somewhere close!"

And so, I've been looking for ponies. I've had enough manure in the last two months to hold me for a lifetime...... and it keeps coming. My manure includes Rand's illness and surgery, his mother's illness, his mother's move to Council Bluffs (that's still in the planning phases,) my son's alcoholism and all the havoc that reeks in his marriage and spills over to us. But in the midst of all this, I'm finding ponies here and there. Cards, calls, emails, visits, facebook posts, prayers, prayers, prayers, understanding coworkers who cover for me when I can't seem to go on, meals with compassionate friends, church family that holds and embraces me and points me the way to God and to hope. God's blessings are sometimes hidden, but they are always there. This is my hope and my prayer.

Clutter, Dirt & Grime

All winter we have collected clutter to take to the Goodwill or to the trash, but it's been too cold to dispose of the treasures and trash. As winter ends and the snow melts, we find the mess that is left behind. Our yards are filled with litter that has been hidden under the snow. The sand that kept our roads passable is still around and in the street gutters. Our cars are first muddy and then dusty. Even if we wash the car, it is dirty again in a day or two. We carry this into our house and into our cars also.

It seems appropriate to think about this during this season of lent -- a time to consider how I follow Jesus. For in our lives, we collect too many things that clutter up our time and hearts. Some things in our lives are dirty and grimy. Some things are just clutter. All of those things push time and commitment to God aside.

So during lent, I hope to do some spring cleaning. I need to make more time for God in my life and I need to get rid of some of the time wasters in my life. I wonder where I should start?

Cooking

You know....... I'm a halfway decent cook, when I put my mind to it. It's just that usually I have better things to do with my time.

But I went to the grocery store last weekend -- another rarity for me -- and so I had the ingredients needed. We had chicken cordon bleu for supper tonight. I had to look up a recipe on foodtv.com and used one by Tyler Florence.....with only a few substitutions. I think Tyler would still recognize the dish, but he may not want his name associated with my end product. It was pretty tasty and I have lunch for tomorrow. The whole project took over an hour of prep and cooking time. Ten minutes to eat. This seems out of balance to me. Is it any wonder I don't cook more often?

However if I spent more time cooking and less time eating, maybe I wouldn't be wondering about my mysteriously shrinking clothes. Rand and I would both be healthier too, if we stuck to the freshly made foods instead of relying upon fastfoods, cooked at home.

Oh well, maybe just a bowl of ice cream before bedtime to help me sleep.

Seen and heard along I-80

I was driving to Des Moines and back today for a regional church meeting. That was pretty much a yawner. Not much accomplished at that gathering, from what I could tell.

The drive down the interstate is usually interesting to me. Even that wasn't so great today. I saw some cars in the ditches and wondered how they got there. After the first half hour, I ran out of KVNO's radio range and realized I'd forgotten to pack music. So, I spent my time pushing the 'seek' button on the radio dial. What I found was station after station of noisy commercials, bad country music, small-town school announcements and obituaries. Pretty bad. Mostly, it was just NOISE. Where was the public radio station when I needed it?

I was pushing the seek button as I passed Casey. I heard "Trivia for Travellers and Truckers." (At least it wasn't noisy.) What is Iowa's state bird? State flower? State rock? Then it moved to trivia about the town of Adair and statements about Iowa's good educational opportunities, job opportunities, and quality of life. Next was the traffic report and the announcement that there were no problems today. As I heard these same things repeated again and again, I realized that I had found the travel info radio station -- you know, the one that the IDOT posts for weather info and that sort of thing. I'd never listened to it before..... and I see why. It had accurate and valuable info, but it was boring. If the weather conditions were bad, I might be more inclined to continue to listen to it.

I wonder if the Church passes on its message to life travelers the same way. The music is sometimes ho-hum. The message seems to be trivial and unrelated to modern-day situations, even tho it has meaning for Christians. During the times of our lives when things are going well, it's easy to turn off the message and listen to the noise of the world instead. When life becomes difficult, we are more attentive to the message of the Church.

As a member of the Church, I have a responsibility to pass on the message of God's love to all of life's travelers -- to all of those on a spiritual journey. I don't want other travelers to hear this message as trivia. I wonder if that's what others hear from me...... or do they hear my enthusiastic thanksgiving for God's love? Does the Church proclaim Jesus as Savior in a way that causes others to pay attention? I wonder what we can do as a Church to make other travelers stop and take notice........

Ash Wednesday

Lent started yesterday. This is my favorite season of the church year. For me, it presents opportunities for introspection. Lent invites me to consider my motives, my actions, my relationships with God and with one another.

Yet, it is not enough for me to sit alone and contemplate. For some folks, this is a time of giving up a habit or a favorite pleasure. That's not me. I find myself called to action -- tho not necessarily anything spectacular. I find myself drawn to new ways of establishing relationship with God.

And so yesterday - Ash Wednesday - I attended a noontime service. It is good to gather with other believers in Christ. Then for those who come for supper at church, I helped set up a prayer station in the sanctuary and assisted in blessing people and praying with them. The ashes remind us that we come from dust and will return to dust when this earthly life is over.

Each Wednesday at Broadway Christian, we feed people to keep their bodies going a little longer. Last night, we offered those same people food for their souls. Those who accepted the ashes and asked for prayers blessed me in ways they cannot imagine. I am honored to be on this lenten journey with them.

Sharing

Listen to these words from Nehmiah 8:10-- "Then he [Ezra] said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink your sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

What does it mean to me? In these days following the earthquake in Haiti and the blizzards here at home, it is easy for me to feel guilty about my abundance of material wealth. Yet, the prophet Ezra helps to put it in perspective. It's not that we are to feel guilty about our wealth, but that we must not forget to help those people who are without. It all goes back to that simple thing that I was taught as a child -- Sharing.

I am to share what I have with those who don't have. When I was a child, I shared grudgingly. It got easier the more I practiced it. Today, I still am tempted to complain when I pay taxes or make my tithe to the church. I'm tempted to think more highly of myself for doing what is required and right. I sometimes think that I should have greater privilege to say how the shared money is spent. But that's not so. I'm called to share of my wealth for the greater good of all.

Our God is a God of abundance. Our God gives us more than we can ever want. Our God entrusts us to distribute that wealth equitably so that all have enough. Help me, O God, to do my part and to do it with a smile on my face and without self-righteousness.

I wonder if I can do this...... I can, with God's help.