What lions' mouths....

I was listening to Chuck Swindoll preach this morning on the life of Daniel and something struck me that had never occurred to me before. I have always thought of Daniel as one of those people who is just in a category all his own. I can only think of one other man in the Bible who lived a high-profile. political life and never ever buckled, not once--Joseph. But these two have always seemed to be the exception to me of how people can truly live--not the rule. They never gave into moral decay, they never compromised who they were even when it got them thrown into prison or worse....

The thing that occurred to me today though, was that Daniel was who he was because he prayed-- three times a day without exception. Prayer punctuated his life. Daily. Consistently. So much so that when his fellow advisors were looking for a way to discredit him, they could find only this as his "weakness". The only point of attack into his life. Not that there is something magical about praying three times a day for us, or that its some kind of formula. I think what strikes me is the fact that THE non-negotiable, everyday, integral part of his very, very busy, very important, politically demanding life was prayer. 

He was never too busy to pray. There was no such thing as not having enough time, or having too many demands on his schedule. Nothing was ever more urgent.  It was never up for negotiation; even when his life and career depended on it.  He was defined by this unwavering commitment to pray. His life, his habits and his time reflected his mindset of looking to God. He didn't try to conceal it; he didn't try to flaunt it. It wasn't a political decision, it was who he was. A man who prayed. 

He accomplished rare and unusual things.  Things that happened because he never lost sight of whose he was and who his God was.  The consistency of his integrity and his obedience didn't happen in a vacuum. It was a result of the consistency of his prayer life. And why was he so dad-gum consistent?  I venture to say that it was of his view of God.  A view that gave him the staggering confidence to dare to put his life, his career and his reputation on the line and tell the king that God could reveal the dream. He put it all on the line because of one surety--his God would hear him, and his God would answer him. What in the crazy world would my life look like if I had such confidence in my God who hears and answers prayer? Woah.  I wonder what God would accomplish through me if my faith and my prayers were that bold.  Wouldn't that be something. I wonder what lions' mouths would be shut in this generation if we were up to such a challenge. 

The Champion of Sin

I think when most of us read the story of David and Goliath we are tempted to put ourself in the place of David. Here we are the underdog with a daunting foe.  I think though that's not really accurate. Not if we are talking about the battle with sin. Its not just that we have slim odds or weak chances of prevailing. We have none. No contest, game over. We have lost.  I think as most of you have I have heard way too much preaching on the topic of dealing with sin in a way that makes me feel at the end like I've just had a motivational talk. I just need to go out and apply myself harder, or in a different way, or try a new strategy to prevail. But what if there is just no way? The harsh reality is that in and of myself am totally helpless. David was a prototype of Jesus. Not of us. He was the Old Testament foreshadowing of the good shepherd who was not daunted by a daunting foe. 

Jesus is that champion for us. He shows up at the battle; a battle at which we have been taunted and defeated for months, maybe even years and says, "I come in the name of the God of Israel that you may know there is a God in Israel." There is NO amount of energy or strategizing, or will power that will allow me to have victory over my sin, whatever it might be. In light of that, my prayer life is one of desperate surrender.  How does my prayer life look different when I know that its not by any amount of my might, or my power that overcomes the enemy in my life? 

If it is only by His Spirit, than victory comes but one way: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." We aren't just the sick, we are dead. And its when we really know it, as Jesus said, that He can heal us. Oh, that I could really really get this in my areas of weakness. They are His to fill, His to perfect, His for this purpose: my surrender and my dependence on Him--- for His glory. It is knowing that I as a cracked pot become a vessel of God's glory that allows me as Paul did to glory in his weaknesses. 

Recognizing Divine pauses

I was talking with my friend Becki Parr a while back and she said something that stuck with me. She said that she had been praying for pauses in her day. Moments where she can breathe and reflect and connect with God or someone else and recognize that her time, her agenda don't belong to her. I had several of those moments today. But I didn't recognize them. I was too busy fuming about the accident on the freeway and the train schedule in front of the school. I didn't really recognize them for what they were until much later. Everyday we have moments where our "best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Those moments are our chance to breathe, to surrender, to pray and to say "Ok, Lord, my agenda isn't always in line with your agenda. Give me eyes to see and a willingness to stop and see the blind man begging along the road as you did. A willingness to stop and listen, no matter what other people demand of me. Let me never take my agenda so seriously." 

Honestly, I didn't do that today. I missed seeing them for what they were. So my prayer tonight is, "Lord, let me not take my agenda so seriously. Give me gratitude for those pauses, and eyes to see that even those annoying events are my chance to see that you need me to stop, and to surrender. Forgive my sense that my time is so important I can't get off schedule." Ministry often happens in those interruptions that are not in my schedule. When my baby or my friend need me at the most inconvenient times. I need grace to surrender my plans to His. Sometimes my hardness of heart in these moments makes me grieve that I miss God's purpose for me in the moment. I guess that's why I need to be told, to be reminded that "God causes ALL THINGS to work together for good for those that love Him. For those who are the called according to His purpose." Sigh. And so I offer up a prayer of repentance and surrender. 

frazzled prayers

So I've been feeling a shift lately in my prayer life. I don't know when it became perceptible to me but I've had glimpses of it over the past two years that would fade back into my old pattern. I think my whole life when I've had the feeling of my life being too complicated and too busy or too stressful, I've felt like the needed response is to go into high gear. I need to try harder, find my A game, come up with new and better solutions to dealing with my weaknesses in order to compensate and make everything work. I guess what I've felt is that the pressure to make my life work, especially when it comes to organizing the details of my life, the complexity of all the roles and tasks and obligations that pull on me. I remember reading a story of Corrie Ten Boom one time from her caretaker Pam Moore. She said that Corrie would be sitting at the table and a problem would arise and she would just say out loud "Lord, take care of it." It seemed to me a bit odd at the time. But I think I'm beginning to get a sense of what it was really beneath that simple prayer. Those who heard her pray said she would just start talking out loud to God even if people were around. It was to her as if He was at the table. They weren't fancy or lengthy or even eloquent prayers. 

Lately I think I get that. My life is too complicated and complex and overwhelming, and its really creating a sinking-into-my-everyday-consciousness-kind of way that apart from Him I can do nothing. I'm not designed to. I'm designed to be connected. To hang with the full weight of my branch from His limb and every source of life and strength and sustenance come from my being connected. Nothing else. So then praying that He works out the logistics of having to be here and then somewhere else and do more than my energy levels and time says I can somehow works--IN HIM. As Colossians says, "In Him all thing [ALL THINGS] hold together." Can that actually mean my house, my car, my budget, my time, my frazzled nerves, my energy? I think it really does. 

So those quick prayers of "God help" that are childlike and real and frazzled aren't my unspiritual dumb moments. They are my most spiritual, my most "I get it" moments. They really are. And asking Him to take care of those things, even the smallest things points to a belief that His greatness is marked as much by the fact that He can oversee and order the most minute details of parking spaces and appointments as well as galaxies and planets. Wow. I'm kind of liking the feeling rather than the rising panic-- of the internal peace that settles in when I lift up those in the moment prayers and feel the weight of the yolk coming off my shoulders as I climb into the harness; one He's already pulling for both of us. His shoulders are broad and strong enough for both of us. More and more I hope that I learn of the yolk that is easy and His burden which is light. Of prayers that cry out without dressing up my fears or desires in acceptable attire. I don't need to. He's my Daddy. He's got it covered.

Here I go

Well, I've been inspired to blog a little bit every day again. My cousin Mary has been blogging everyday and reading her blog Wide Margins has nudged me into action again. I like that she's ok with just putting down her thoughts, even if they're short and sweet. So here I go, short and sweet, and as Madeline L'Engle says 10 minutes of writing a day. I can do that. Here I go....