Words of Fire Blog

Praying for Prayer: Together, in Love, At the Table

4/30/2014

"True, whole prayer is nothing but love."

St. Augustine

I am drawn to prayer as others might be drawn to food. I need it to survive, to thrive, and just to get up in the morning. I need to be nourished: in my body, with food; in my spirit, with prayer.

But eating is not just about taking nourishment. Most often, I eat alone. However, there are occasions when I want to share a meal. I don't want to have a meal for one, a meal that just nourishes my immediate desires. It is at these times when food is not just about satisfying physical hunger. Rather, I dine with others because I want fellowship and connection. At those tables, I am welcomed, I am loved and I am a part of another's life.

On this, the National Day of Prayer, we are called to sit together at the banquet table. We are called to hunger for fellowship, for connection and for each other.

Today, let us pray, let us feast, and let us connect to each other through the God who loves us.

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."

Karl Barth

It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming

4/18/2014

…Look around you:
Winter is over;
The winter rains are
over, gone!
Spring flowers are in
Blossom all over.
The whole world’s a
choir—and singing!
Song of Solomon 2:10-11 (The Message)

Spring is coming, I’m sure it is. It’s almost here. I keep believing that it will be here. I keep believing that the winter is over and then I get disappointed. Another winter storm. Another icy morning. Another sudden frost grips the earth.  During this winter, I was afraid to believe in the spring.

I wanted to look forward to blooming flowers, budding trees—green lawns. I wanted to remember picking the first daffodils of spring but I couldn’t. There were days this winter when I doubted spring’s existence, when I doubted that I would ever see another jonquil or flower in my accidental garden. Apparently, my plants had more faith than I did.   Even though the snow fell and the cold gripped what should have been many a spring morning, my plants never doubted that Spring would arrive. My plants continued to push through the cold, the snow and the frost towards the coming spring.

I wish I had the same dogged snow-covered faith; I didn't:  because every time the cold seemed to stop and the snow melted, another storm was on the way.

But isn’t life like that? We know that spring is coming because, well, spring always comes. We know that our lives will face winter storms, icy days and cold nights. We know that the snow will cover the ground, but we also know that spring is on its way.

Spring means resurrection, doesn’t it? And even though on Good Friday everything seemed bleak, cold, dark and forlorn--Sunday’s coming. Resurrection is on the way, and winter will, at last, be over.

Praying for Prayer: Together, in Love, At the Table

It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming

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