PRAYING FOR OUR LEADERS

Have You Heard this One: “Due to the lack of production of great followers, the production of great leaders has been suspended”.

What You Might Expect Me to Say about Prayer for Leaders: Just pray! The leaders in your world can’t get by without it. Barack Obama needs you to; I need you to; and a lot of other leaders in your lives need you to, and God wants you to pray.

But that’s Not the Whole Story, Is it? Many of us don’t know how to pray. And many of us just don’t do it. And many of us would easily miss praying for many who lead us outside of a president or two.

Here’s Where I get in Trouble: Sure, sometimes we don’t pray because we doubt ourselves, or God, or we doubt those we might pray for, but the truth is most of us would be happy to pray for others if we had any rhythms of prayer at all. Beginning a pattern of prayer is hard for us who want everything do-able in three minutes or less. And sometimes we can only find the heart to pray for closest friends in a cocoon-like narrowness focused only on the world we can see out our front window, or maybe only within our walls.

But for a lot of us the problem is how. So, while I can’t set rhythms of prayer for you, here is an exercise as a suggestion or two about how to pray for leaders.

I recommend you start with your favored hand. Really. If you get out your hand and look at the fingers, that will help in this exercise, and it might be so helpful you could add it to your routines at a fixed point each day. Start with the thumb.

When I pray for those who lead, I take hold of my thumb and pray for the most important thing a leader has: integrity and caring. This is more important to leadership than any decision anyone can make. I pray that they will be whole in God.

After that, I take hold of my little finger and pray for the small subtleties that make a leader balanced. I pray for the environment they find themselves in and those who advise them.

Then I take hold of my ring finger and lift to God all who love the leader and ask that they find intimacy and power and forgiveness in their core family relationships.

Then I grasp my middle finger and … well, the fame of the middle finger is actually helpful to me when I pray. I remember all the obstacles and opponents who would destroy or diminish their work. I pray protection for leaders from those who would … well … middle finger them.

Then I pray with my first finger pointed. To the sky, maybe, sometimes tapping the chair I sit on to remember the firmness of a direction found. For example, I pray for my Bishop that he will know where the church needs to go and what he needs to point to for it to go there. I pray for his courage to keep pointing even when there is fog all around. I often find myself pointing in front of me, even if I don’t know what direction my leader should take. I just ask God to tell him!

Don’t Lie to Yourself: prayer is not bargaining with, or controlling, or controlling the world that God made so free that it finds ways to be wounded. And, uhhh, the real question is still going to be finding a rhythm and a hope for praying.

Oh, and by the way, when you find that rhythm, you will be so happy and grateful. And freer.

God loves you.

Go ahead, pray. Let your hopes go to work, and let them go wild.

PRAYING FOR OUR LEADERS

Have You Heard this One: “Due to the lack of production of great followers, the production of great leaders has been suspended”.

What You Might Expect Me to Say about Prayer for Leaders: Just pray! The leaders in your world can’t get by without it. Barack Obama needs you to; I need you to; and a lot of other leaders in your lives need you to, and God wants you to pray.

But that’s Not the Whole Story, Is it? Many of us don’t know how to pray. And many of us just don’t do it. And many of us would easily miss praying for many who lead us outside of a president or two.

Here’s Where I get in Trouble: Sure, sometimes we don’t pray because we doubt ourselves, or God, or we doubt those we might pray for, but the truth is most of us would be happy to pray for others if we had any rhythms of prayer at all. Beginning a pattern of prayer is hard for us who want everything do-able in three minutes or less. And sometimes we can only find the heart to pray for closest friends in a cocoon-like narrowness focused only on the world we can see out our front window, or maybe only within our walls.

But for a lot of us the problem is how. So, while I can’t set rhythms of prayer for you, here is an exercise as a suggestion or two about how to pray for leaders.

I recommend you start with your favored hand. Really. If you get out your hand and look at the fingers, that will help in this exercise, and it might be so helpful you could add it to your routines at a fixed point each day. Start with the thumb.

When I pray for those who lead, I take hold of my thumb and pray for the most important thing a leader has: integrity and caring. This is more important to leadership than any decision anyone can make. I pray that they will be whole in God.

After that, I take hold of my little finger and pray for the small subtleties that make a leader balanced. I pray for the environment they find themselves in and those who advise them.

Then I take hold of my ring finger and lift to God all who love the leader and ask that they find intimacy and power and forgiveness in their core family relationships.

Then I grasp my middle finger and … well, the fame of the middle finger is actually helpful to me when I pray. I remember all the obstacles and opponents who would destroy or diminish their work. I pray protection for leaders from those who would … well … middle finger them.

Then I pray with my first finger pointed. To the sky, maybe, sometimes tapping the chair I sit on to remember the firmness of a direction found. For example, I pray for my Bishop that he will know where the church needs to go and what he needs to point to for it to go there. I pray for his courage to keep pointing even when there is fog all around. I often find myself pointing in front of me, even if I don’t know what direction my leader should take. I just ask God to tell him!

Don’t Lie to Yourself: prayer is not bargaining with, or controlling, or controlling the world that God made so free that it finds ways to be wounded. And, uhhh, the real question is still going to be finding a rhythm and a hope for praying.

Oh, and by the way, when you find that rhythm, you will be so happy and grateful. And freer.

God loves you.

Go ahead, pray. Let your hopes go to work, and let them go wild.

Miracles

Have You Heard the One About: The Appalachian sheriff pulled over Wilmer, a known moonshiner and asked what he was doing out so late. Wilmer thought quickly and said “I was at that revival down there at the New ‘Nited Methodist Church”. The sheriff asked what the sermon had been about. “Miracles” bluffed Wilmer. “Well, said the sheriff, what’s in those jugs in the back seat of your car?” Wilmer mumbled “Water, I s’pose”. The sheriff asked if he could have a drink of water, to which Wilmer glumly agreed. Suddenly the sheriff said “Wilmer, this here is alcohol, it’s not water!” Wilmer, quickly inspired, bowed his head and said “Look at that! The good Lord done done it again!!!”

What You Might Expect Me to Say about Miracles: They happen every day. They happen in the very fact of life. We need to choose to see.

But that’s Not the Whole Story, Is It? When we stand at the bedside of dying children, we demand more. When mothers of children are diagnosed as terminal, we demand more. When disasters strike randomly we insist that God do more to change the situation. When we see birth defects, ravaging disease, unintended consequences, or even when we make mistakes, we want a do over. We insist on it. We command God.

Here’s Where I Get into Trouble. Nowadays, miracles are the stuff of science. Doctors have words like spontaneous remission, benign, misdiagnosis. Medical research gives us terms like immune system, regeneration, adaptation. Physicists use terms like uncertainty principle, probability. Cosmologists use terms like omega point, anthropic principle. We don’t use the generic term miracle often, but we actually have multiplied our use of similar concepts.

Drug and physical and psychological therapies, joint replacements and organ transplants, civil engineering, waste water treatment, the list goes on and on… art and beauty, benevolence and self sacrifice. Miracles are everywhere! We live the supernatural!! What we complain about are the exceptions where we don’t see miracles. Miracles are the norm. We don’t like it when they don’t show up. I guess you could call us spoiled. We can get lazy and only pray when we see the exceptions. I hope we can pray for wisdoms to develop more miracles, from forgiveness to gardens growing, and pray our joy in seeing the miracles we do see, as well as pray for the places we don’t see them yet.

Have I seen miracles in answer to prayer? Hundreds of times. Many have been confirmed by doctors, using the language of their field, of course.
Thousands more have been confirmed in the changed lives of individuals.

Have I seen prayers for miracles go unanswered? I guess thousands of times if we just mean God did not do what I asked. [Oh, and yes, sometimes we can give many thanks for God not doing what I have asked. I can’t always see the whole picture.] But kids dying? Mothers also? Come on God. And I have also seen some miracles that I didn’t think were necessary … that I would have gladly traded for bigger better things.

Cosmologists will tell us we shouldn’t be here at all. And anthropologists will tell us that none of us should be living as long as we are, historically speaking. But every time someone dies, even if it makes sense in some abstract mathematical way, I cringe. I will continue to pray for miracles until I die or until no one dies anymore. And I will continue to be angry with God and the creation when miracles don’t happen that could heal or recover a life. What does that do to my life with God? I don’t follow this God because I get my way. If I did get my way altogether for just a little while, I would become deeply sick and the world itself would be damaged horribly. The movie Bruce, Almighty could be any of our life’s story if we got our way all the time.

Jesus suggested we could have a part in making miracles happen. And we do. So why not pray miracles into the creation every day, and pray twice as hard for the exceptions where we don’t see them? If we don’t get what we want, we at least take our part on the side of a passion for goodness.


Don’t Lie to Yourself: We will all face moments when the anomaly of believing in a God of love and seeing good people suffer will make us either mad, crazy, or atheists. But we do get to choose which. We will ache. At the top of our lungs and the bottom of our souls.

But we can love all good, and desire for even more. And hold each other as sacred in our hearts, and share our hope. And learn to see. Do well.

Beggers

Have You Heard the One About: When bankers go to Washington they “ask” for bailouts and no interest loans. When starving people ask for food we call that “begging”. What’s the difference? The bankers shave. For that they get $699,999,999,999 more than the beggar. That’s funny without being funny!

What You Might Expect Me to Say about Beggars: Give to those who ask of you, without expecting a return. You who know me know that I have been deeply shaped by a story of Jesus saying when we give food or drink or clothing or visits to the poor and wounded we do it to Jesus himself. So giving to beggars is doubly sacred and is also a privilege.

But that’s Not the Whole Story, Is It? If you and I both give $5.00 to a meth user or a drunk, we could get them horrendously high tonight. This might even be the night they tip over the edge and become violent toward others, maybe even their own children, or to themselves; or the night it kills them.

Here’s Where I Get into Trouble: If we really want to invest in a desperate human’s healing, a buck isn’t enough! If we kept the next ten single dollars we were going to give to ten beggars on the side of the road, and on the eleventh, took time to hear their story, took them to a restaurant, and gave them phone numbers to our church and/or another agency, and let them use our cell phone for a five minute call to their closest family member, wouldn’t that feel different? And it might cost $11.00! And an hour or less.

Of course we would need to 1) mitigate any silly risks associated with this effort, and 2) not think we have a right to a successful turnaround to mainstream living from anyone we take the time to help.

I love that you want to help people enough that you chose to read this piece. But I hope you will put real effort in your help. Otherwise it might not be help. But if you do take a beggar to dinner, you might well feel better knowing you learned their name and the names/situations of their family.

Don’t Lie to Yourself: You can get roped in by cons in a heartbeat if you go out like a lamb among lions on the street. Yes, also drugs and alcohol and mental problems are endemic out there. But there are many honest people who beg who are just desperate enough to not always act as they would if they weren’t desperate. You are called to care. Wisely done, without silly expectations, it can change you as much as it changes them.

And some of your best compassion is put into voting, and/or supporting churches and agencies that do real work for the hurting that we as individuals can’t do. And volunteering. And loving a wounded kid on your block so he/she doesn’t become the next generation on that same street.

Do well.

Meditation

Have You Heard the One About: the Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler movie “Anger Management” has a scene where Adam Sandler’s character visits the Buddhist monastery where his old school bully now lives as an adult. Instead of me telling it, let me just recommend the movie.

What You Might Expect Me to Say about Meditation: If you are from a certain background you might think Christianity is against meditation and that it is a practice limited to eastern religions and “new agers”. I hope this isn’t you. But assuming it is not, you might also expect me to say that meditation is easy to learn and practice.

But that’s Not the Whole Story, Is It? While Judaism and Christianity have encouraged meditation from the very beginnings of their movements [see Psalm 19 for example, and note the last lines] it seems that the practice is rarely taught, and even when it is, it is hard to admit how many conflicts with the practice most of us have.

What is it? Usually being silent, frequently in a group, but maybe more often alone; breathing slowly, sometimes counting during breaths to slow their pace over a period of time; and focusing on one thing of beauty or goodness, or one passage, or just resting in the Presence of God. How to learn it? Well, see below, but I recommend reading a short story from the life of Jesus several times over, then going into the breathing and quieting time beginning with a simple prayer like “God stand guard at the door of my heart”, and listening directly to the spirit.

What goes wrong? Well, let’s see … kids, phones, to-do-list kinds of thinking, models of prayer that end at asking God for stuff, caffeine-laced twitchiness, impatience, you name it. Still for those who learn to meditate, they insist it is a profound act. I practice three forms, both with no regular schedule, but both very meaningful to me. The first is a lot like the above, the second is more of a Muevorar kind of planned movement, often associated with Bible passages, and a third a kind of meditative walk, almost labyrinth style (labyrinths rock, by the way). As a hyperactive, it is nice to move between the three.

Reading can be a meditation. Even exercising, gardening, studying intently, or listening to music in certain settings and ways. Prayerful music sung together can give the same kind of experience.

Here’s Where I Get into Trouble: If you can never go there, if you can’t imagine having the time and attention to meditate, that is a self diagnosis that your life is probably paced to kill. No, you don’t need to meditate like the next person, but if you never get to be at home in your deepest internal space, you probably have been force fed a lifestyle of noise and activity and stimulation that is divorcing you from you. It happens to all of us, but realizing it is a call to come home, to take your soul back and to allow God to bring you to yourself.

But Don’t Lie to Yourself: The call to become meditative is a beginning of a grand conversion away from the electronic perversions of our day … it is just a beginning and it will not end there. Choose it at your own risk. You will become more at home outside than inside, you may lose your love of shopping online and television drivel, you may lose your hunger for gadgets, you may even speak fewer words and more meaningful ones.

On the other hand, you may find it is a very unBuddha-like war to try to build a lifestyle of even the occasional hour for this artful life choice. My only counsel on that matter is try to let every minute become a little more mindful and ease back on all your intense behaviors and it may become more realistic to slip into the deeper place.

And one more thing: Moms and others under near-constant pressure, and still others who are prone to self flagellation, don’t abuse yourself if this seems far from you. Resenting those who keep you from deepest silence is not a way to find any peace at all. Cherishing the moments with others can be its own kind of mindfulness, and doing the meaningful tasks of life at a certain clip can be total immersion experiences.

Peace and joy, strength and beauty to you.

Do well.

Stress

Have you heard this one? “I don’t have stress. I give it.”

What You Might Expect Me To Say About Stress: Aw-w-w, just relax. Or maybe toughen up. Jesus said worry doesn’t help at all.

But That’s Not the Whole Story, Is It? From financial meltdowns we cannot control, to family pains, to work and responsibilities, stress is almost built in. Jesus does razz us about worrying in Matthew 6, but he, too knew responsibilities and tensions with those around him. A good summary of Paul’s writing in the Bible might be “trust God, but work hard”. Not quite as comforting as a good massage, is it?

Here’s Where I Get in Trouble: You can use me to say this to you if you need someone to remind you of what you already know. Two issues boil to the top that don’t get talked about enough in self help books. First is the need to balance our work with our joy. I am the senior staff responsible for three organizations, including this church that I pastor. I have kids, and bills that are oppressive. I live with a brain injury. But most days I am deeply happy. I know people who are even more at peace than me who have even more responsibilities and challenges. How is this possible?

Those who don’t die under stress are those who have developed the capacity to cherish … they look to the successes in their work and remember them out loud; they look to their workmates or families and verbalize and take note of their gifts and kindnesses; they look for good stuff and appreciate it at length, as a habit of the soul. When you stop looking for good, it can be hard to see. When you look, it is everywhere. You know this!

Second, we need rhythms we won’t compromise for anything but the direst conflict. The morning bran … the walk … the church worship … the bedtime kiss or the reading before sleep, you’re not all the same, but we have to keep some rhythms or we fall into a disorder not far from schizophrenia. Watch the stress/depression that accompanies so many who either get into the sleeping-in-with-no-fixed-waking-hour anti-routine or the opposite of no-bed-time and no-time-when-work-has-to-stop. Sure, there is chicken and egg as to cause, but not eating at least some veggies and fruits, and not getting aerobic a couple of times a week, and not being near positive people for conversation and for celebration regularly will leave us ready for the meltdown.

Don’t Lie to Yourself: Life is hard, and sometimes REAL hard. And you have to say no to things before you can say yes to other things. You don’t stretch so far or so well! But some stress is the natural function of living. The question is balance.

And another argument for kind, honorable living is that it reduces the pains of horrid consequences. But if you have failed here, don’t forget, God forgives. Consequences may last, but God’s love overcomes even our worst failures.

[[BUT: major health breakdowns and certain major life losses are not in this same category. These are not just stress. They involve grief and pain and chemical reactions and are worthy of getting counseling and help from friends and family. Dumping on yourself about your ability to manage stress in those times just drains you more. Stay or get close to some people in those times that will help you keep your head above water through the intense times. You will find grace in the most unusual places.]]

Do well.