Short, Simple Prayer

"Lord... Look down here," ~Athol Dickson

Good thing too

"God can pick sense out of a confused prayer." ~Richard Sibbes

From the heart

"Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart." ~Martin Luther

Its all about trust

"Don't expect faith to clear things up for you.
It is TRUST, not certainty." ~Flannery O'Connor

What a friend we have in Jesus

"Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God." ~St.Terrsa of Avila

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

"Lord, let me make a difference for You
that is utterly disproportionate to who I am."

~John Piper

God does not stand afar off

"God does not stand afar off as I struggle to speak. he cares enough to listen with more than casual attention. He translates my scrubby words and hears what is truly inside. He hears my sighs and uncertain groppings as fine prose." ~Timothy Jones

Buck Up

"If one has never suffered,
one cannot understand
what hope is."
~Martin Luther
(See also Romans 5:3-5 & 2 Corinthians 1:4)

The Great Tragedy in Life

"The great tragedy in life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer." ~F.B.Meyer

The problem with Christians

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, 
   for they will be comforted. 
⁵ Blessed are the meek, 
   for they will inherit the earth. 
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
   for they will be filled. 
⁷ Blessed are the merciful, 
   for they will be shown mercy. 
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, 
   for they will see God. 
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, 
   for they will be called children of God. 
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, 
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform.

Not exactly George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld stuff. (Or Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reiley, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, John Boehner, or Mitch McConnell stuff either.)

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, the demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

"Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

~Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without A Country, 2005

Praying for people who drive you crazy

"How many of us have conflicts with someone else- and how many of us pray for that person? We have individuals with whom we are competitive, or whom we dislike or have a quarrel with; but very few of us have true enemies in the martial sense. And yet if Lincoln could pray fervently- and contemporary reports indicate he did- for the people who were opposing him, how much more can we do for someone we just find a little irritating?" 
— John Wooden (A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring)

Convicting quote

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." ~Ann Lamott

Rand Paul and Glenn Beck

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

What is happening to us?

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

~Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984),

in a January 6, 1946 speech before representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt.

Could we paraphrase this famous quote?

"They came for the Mexicans,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Mexican..."

Love one another, & do unto others...

"We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flaunt the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule" ~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It's about process, not product

This life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed.
- Martin Luther

Put your money where other people's mouths are

For me and my sisters poverty is freedom, and the less we have the more we can give. Poverty is love before it is renunciation. It is not that we cannot have luxuries. We choose not to have them. This freedom brings joy, and joy enables us to give in love until it hurts.
- Mother Teresa

Thy will, not mine

God, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me whatever you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures. Into your hands I commend my spirit. I offer it to you with all the love that is in my heart. For I love you, Lord, and so want to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve and with boundless confidence. Amen.

A prayer of Charles de Foucauld

Try to BE the person you hope your child will become

USE peace, don't just have it

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." -MLK

Call me crazy, but I don't think Dr. King is just talking about accomplishing civil rights with civil disobedience. I tend to think that it's applicable to parenting, teaching, coaching, and any interactions which we have with others- even driving!

Think about it, getting defensive, getting even, getting your own way- these all escalate tension and cause stress.

Calm and warm is more likely to set others at ease, even calm them down so that people on both sides of any disagreement can see more clearly and move forward without crashing into one another.

Something to keep in mind next week when we all spend an inordinate amount of time with our dysfunctional extended families, right?

Before you think he's just some bleeding heart liberal, or that he was some kind of new-ager, under the influence of Hindu gurus like Ghandi- be sure to see what Jesus says in Matthew 5:38-48.