Wednesday February 7^th 2024

Sitting at my desk Tuesday morning, participating in our daily Morning Prayer gathering on zoom, it occurred to me: APPEARANCE.

My grandmother was known for always looking perfectly put together when she walked out her front door. In fact, living with her during the school year, I never saw her with a hair out of place. The ladies up the street would comment to me that “Mrs. Cole comes out to sweep the porch and even the seams of her stockings are straight!”.

Taking after her, I would never go out without makeup and lipstick … even to get the mail at the end of the driveway! Going to the store or church or even the dump required making sure I looked presentable.

Then came COVID and we were all entertaining guests in our homes via Zoom. And that too required making sure I looked presentable. At first.

What struck me on Tuesday was that I have “degraded” to attending morning prayer in my pajamas, no makeup, not showered. And you know what? No one cares!

In scripture, though, there is a verse that reminds us that appearance is more than just how well you are dressed. John 7:24 tells us not to judge based on appearance but to look beneath the surface.

What about when we meet people or see them in the store or on the street. Do we make decisions based on their appearance?

Two examples come to mind:

In the first, a dirty, ragged man sits on the church steps as the parishioners arrive. No one greets him or offers him assistance. They were all shocked when, as the first hymn played, he walked to the front of the church and then introduced himself as their new pastor.

In the other, several people are sitting in a pew. Two prim young ladies are on one end and two nicely-dressed young men are at the other. In the center sits a rough-looking, tattooed, leather-clad man. The thoughts of the neatly-dressed four are distracted in worship by how “that guy” is not a “real” Christian. The man in the center is holding a worn Bible and his thoughts are “Christ, my life and heart belong to You.”

So our outward appearance (clothes, makeup, car, house) is not as important as our inner appearance. What man sees is not as important as what God sees.

The other question is “What do others see in us?” That’s for another day.

I am so glad that the others gathering on that zoom call look beneath the surface – past the messy hair and lack of lipstick – to the disciple’s heart joining in prayer.

What does God see in your heart?

 

Wednesday January 31^st 2024

Everyone who knows me knows that I have opinions and freely share them. So they will be surprised (or perhaps relieved) that this week’s word is SILENT.

Not the absence of sound, but rather the kind of silence in “better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and erase all doubt.” OR as it is stated in Proverbs 17:28, “Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent.“

Already this week I have either extended a conversation beyond its usefulness, or expressed opinions not requested or beneficial. At least three times! It had begun to gnaw at my conscience, and then two posts appeared on Facebook that really drove it home. Yes – this is the word for the week.

Sometimes silence speaks volumes. It can allow space for listening and thinking.

Stephen Covey lists “seek not be understood so much as to understand” as one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. And that understanding requires listening – not just listening to configure a response or to know when you can speak.

In Luke Chapter 1 we read about Zechariah – he questioned God, rather than faithfully and immediately accepting God’s plan, so he was silenced until the birth of John the Baptist. During those following months the people knew he had seen a vision in the temple causing his silence. Then his silence was broken when he announced the name of John.

Sometimes sharing one’s story or opinion is helpful, edifying, and/or encouraging. Sometimes it simply isn’t appropriate or necessary. Discernment here is key, and a period of silence allows discerning.

Yes – sometimes being silent is the same as agreeing, and we do not want to be silent at the wrong times. “Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.” So said Mahatma Gandhi.

Will Rogers said “Never miss a good chance to shut up.” For some reason this reminded me of Jesus drawing in the dirt while waiting for the crowd to stone the woman caught in adultery (John 8). He didn’t launch into a long sermon – he made a simple statement (“let him who is without sin cast the first stone”) and then sat silently until they were all gone. Then again, one simple statement – “go and sin no more”.

Silence allows us to truly listen, to absorb, to lay our words aside and take in the words of others, to watch the scene before us without simultaneously crafting a response.

Are there times you were called to be silent yet spoke anyway? (note my raised hand)

Here is a prayer I hope you will find helpful: Lord, give me the right words to say, the right time to say them, and the ability to know when to keep silent.”

 Wednesday January 24^th 2024

Sometimes we find it necessary to create words that have not previously existed. Often this happens with slang terms or medical terms that come into common usage. Back in the 1990s I was part of a group trying to add a profession to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and at that time it was required to find the word in print in such places as a newspaper to support the request.

Today’s word is such a word: PRAYCATION.

I hadn’t heard this word before our senior minister Daniel Hetherington used it. The rest of the day I kept pondering that word.

So what is a praycation?

We know that a vacation is a time away from the usual tasks and schedule of our lives. We have come to refer to a staycation as a vacation spent at home, rather than going to the beach or the mountains or on a cruise.

A praycation then would be a time taken away from our usual tasks and schedule and spent in prayer.

In Mark 1:35 we read “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” Jesus intentionally went to a place away from the tasks and schedule, the demands and the people, and spent time in prayer.

In Luke 6:12 we find “One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.” So, He not only got up in the morning to pray, sometimes He dedicated an entire night to praying!

And of course, the Mount of Olives finds Jesus stepping away from even His closest followers to pray alone. “He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,” we are told, leaving his disciples to wait for Him.

How would we do that?

A praycation can be long or short – just as a vacation or staycation! It can be a time of personal retreat over a weekend, or it can be a morning or afternoon spent alone. It could even be an solid hour of prayer in a quiet place.

During a women’s retreat some years back, I chose to spend the afternoon free time in prayer and contemplation in the cemetery at the convent where we were retreating. I walked among the grave markers and prayed for each of the women whose bodies were there; I prayed for each of the women attending the retreat. I walked for a while this way, in peace and quiet surrounded by the autumn leaves. When I began praying for the words of the evening session I was to present, God interrupted my prayers with a directive: Go back to your room and re-write the evening session completely. I asked God to repeat that and He did. So indeed I spent the remainder of the free time re-writing, and He made sure it flowed from the fingertips onto the page.

What would God say to you if YOU spent some time on praycation?