About 3-4 weeks ago, our daughter Becca came from school, admittedly Toledo School for the Arts, and out of the blue said she wanted to start playing a new musical instrument. For several years she played piano. Despite how good she became at it, practice was a chore. Cheri and Becca would come close to blows some days. And, then Becca told us she would like to play the String Bass, the biggest and most expensive musical instrument available. Both parents suppressed the groans fortunately.
But something amazing happened, she took to it. Her first weekend with the Bass, she could not leave it alone. She had no training, no lessons yet, and she would not leave it alone. Before her first lesson, she was getting sound out of it, real notes and all. And with the bass, she is practicing without being told, even asking for chances to do so, rather than reading, etc.
Something is different, Becca wants to do this. She has found something that feeds her. And, maybe those piano lessons are paying off. She learned to read music, keep rhythm, knows how to count out notes, and within a week, after one lesson, she’s already playing simple songs.
Both Cheri & Kurt have struggled for years to develop a spiritual discipline. For Kurt, this is done in motion, martial arts, yoga, some form of exercise. In movement, Kurt gets closer to the spirit. For Cheri, it’s the opposite, quiet prayer. For many years, she has tried to develop a practice of daily prayer on a consistent basis. She has admired other Christians who had this habit. Both of us have struggled throughout our adult lives with this discipline.
Cheri has listened to pastors tell her that as a faithful follower of Jesus she should have this practice. She has tried to get up early in the morning and do it. Finally she found a rhythm that worked for her, in the summer evenings, on my front porch, lighting a candle and reading a book about Sabbath (Kurt’s still working on it, but he got a great week or so prayer session of sanding and painting that porch while she was out of town to get this started).
Something finally clicked. But here is the thing we want you to hear – all those other times we prayed for a few weeks, and then got out of the habit, those times were important too. Because it was a start. It was a conversation with us and God. And even though there were some long breaks in between, it was all valuable. Not one moment we have ever spent in prayer with God has been wasted, even when we went years in between.
Cheri’s prayer life is like Becca learning the bass. First, prayer was more fun for her, when Cheri was truly ready. But second, praying is a skill that comes, like anything else, with practice. Becca can learn to play the bass easier because of those piano lessons, even though she never really took to the piano. She liked it, but it was not her passion. But it laid the ground work. Watching her, now we understand how a musician, once they learn one instrument, can learn so many more. It’s a skill and with practice, it becomes so easy, it’s like breathing.
That’s what finally happened with Cheri and daily prayer. In College, in seminary, even as a young pastor, she tried this prayer practice and that one, she can show you a stack of devotional books in my office. Cheri read the Psalms (a book of beautiful, prayerful, poetry in the old Testament, many written by King David) off and on for years. And then she would get mad at herself because she would not maintain the practice of getting up every morning for my quiet time with God. Kurt experienced that too as one exercise/prayer discipline that started well fell by the wayside again as he would not take the time to get up and make that happen. (Can you tell we are not morning people?).
But here is the thing: Regardless of the “failures” , WE WERE STILL PRACTICING. No one ever gets it perfect every time, EVER. This is life. LIFE IS PRACTICE. Prayer is a life practice. Prayer, our conversation with God, is a practice of life. Prayer is what connects us to God.
So this is our question for you today: are you happy with your prayer life, or would you like it to be better? Or to put it another way: are you happy with your feeling of connection to God, or would you like it to be better? Because prayer is our tool for getting connected to God.
For those who want to get a better connection to God, we have an invitation. But first, a little lesson in “church stuff” for those who may not have grown up in church, or are not from a church that celebrates the Church seasons. You know we don’t give you church stuff without explaining, and if you catch us doing that, call us on it.
First a big term – Lent. Lent is period of 40 days (except Sundays, you actually get the Sundays off) leading up to Easter (April 24) . It begins with Ash Wednesday, March 9, a usual somber celebration, service of preparation. The
Season of Lent is traditionally a time of reflection, confession, take our spiritual life deeper, “walk with Jesus to the cross,” adult candidates for baptism go through preparation, sacrifice – a.k.a. “give up something for Lent”.
Here at The Village, we are going to use the season of Lent to go deeper in our connection to God. We are going to have connection groups on Wednesday and Thursday nights, a 5 session study on the book “Economy of Love”. Also, coming up we'll talk about other Spiritual Practices: Prayer, Giving to help the poor, fasting (this Sunday and next two in worship)
On Ash Wed, March 9, at 7 p.m. we’ll have a Worship Service here to mark the beginning of the season of Lent. It will be a time for us to gather and make a commitment to God about the Spiritual practice we want to practice during the 40 days of Lent. You have about two and a half weeks to think about it. One of the options is to make some commitment around prayer. Whatever your current practice is with prayer, would you deepen it for the 40 days of Lent? Now, just to help out a bit, let’s just look at prayer for a couple of minutes.
Some of you know quite a bit about prayer. Some people tell me they do not pray because they just do not know where to start. When Cheri started taking prayer more seriously she was fascinated to learn that there are so many different types of prayer:
- Intercessory – (praying for others)
- Petitions for yourself (God help me pass this test.)
- Confession (at the Village, unlike our Catholic brothers & sisters, we believe you can go directly to God and receive the forgiveness that God gives. They go through clergy)
- Praise – singing God’s praises
- Thanksgiving and gratitude (God thank you for the roof over my head, the bed I’m getting into, etc)
- Listening – being still (or moving quietly) and listening to God
- Emptying yourself – emptying our minds with a simple word or action to meditate.
That last one is what finally helped Cheri unlock the mystery of prayer, at least as far as she has unlocked the mystery so far, in her life. She still has more to learn. Meditative prayer, where we just empty our heads of any thoughts, and just open ourselves to God, can be some of the most powerful prayer.
Another variation on this is to choose just one word (or a phrase) for God, a sort of mantra, like Peace, or Spirit, or Calm, and just pray that word with each breath sometimes called a breath prayer. Cheri often does that at the beginning of the day. Kurt wears a bracelet of prayer beads around his wrist. A time or two a day, when he needs to center himself, calm himself prepare himself, he takes it off and does a breath prayer. On each bead he breathes in and says “here I am God” and on the next bead, as he breathes out “Make me your servant”. It makes all the difference.
Jesus’ disciples, the people who were actually there with Jesus in person, were no different than us. They were clueless on how to do this. They asked him for advice about how to pray – how better to connect to God in this conversation. Jesus told them to keep it simple. He said that when we are getting started we should not worry about praying in public. He criticized folks who used lots of fancy empty phrases when praying in front of other people, trying to sound important. He said, just find a quite place, where you can be with God. That’s the important thing. And then he gave them an example of a prayer that we now know as The Lord’s Prayer.
Honestly, we don’t think Jesus ever meant that we would we would pray that same prayer every Sunday in our churches – though we’re sure he does not mind. If you look more closely at his prayer, and our list of types of prayers, many of the components of prayer are right there in Jesus prayer. That’s why we call it a “model prayer.” So if you don’t know where to start, this is a good place. Let’s pray it together. There are lots of different translations of the prayer. Here is one we will use together today:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.
So, there’s the trail head to a prayer journey. Are you ready to take it? If so, get started. If not, and you need a trail guide or more, than try coming to the Village. We’re at the Corner of Monroe & Central in Toledo.
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