Daily Archives: January 15, 2008

 Chapter 11 is Unceasing Prayer and I believe that I have only begun to experience this.  It is my desire! My passion and dream is to write a book, the book that already exists in my heart and has for nearly ten years, The Sacredness of the Mundane.  How sacred every second is and this topic, this unceasing prayer is the key, the secret, if you will. 
 Foster calls this unceasing prayer breath prayer.  He encourages us to start by creating our own breath prayer (a short, one line prayer that can be said in one breath) and praying it throughout the day:  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.  Again, he is not speaking of vain repetition, but of a way of centering ourselves continually through the day, to think of God and turn to Him in every moment.  One key I see is Foster’s order of chapters.  First, as he says, we must learn to pray sometime somewhere before we can learn to pray all the time everywhere.  I see this already.  The growth in my daily, set, devotional prayer has led to more breath prayer.  I am far from where I desire to be, but I can see growth!  Praise God!  This is so encouraging. 
 And yes this is not easy.  Brother Lawrence said it took him 10 years before he was truly practicing the presence of God.  But doesn’t anything worthwhile take time and effort and work?!  The result is this, as Foster says: We become less agitated in traffic … we endure the petty frustrations of home and office more easily … we are able to listen to others more intently, quietly … we become more aware of children (and love them more!). 

So, the assignment on this book was a little different than was written in my syllabus (I suppose that’s what I get for getting started the week before class!), so instead of 1.75-2.25 pages I’m supposed to write 175-225 words.  That is a drastic difference.  Basically instead of two pages I’m to write two paragraphs.  So, these entries will get significantly shorter, but I will be also posting other reflective/soul care and thoughtful types of assignments, thoughts, and ideas, so have no fear—plenty of new content is here!

Chapter 10 is about Sacramental Prayer, and I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant.  Basically, he’s exploring and advocating some use of liturgical prayer using Scripture, The Book of Common Prayer, and other aids.  I was struck by his recalling a period in his life where he sought “religionless Christianity”, where he sought to follow after God without “props”—no liturgy, no Eucharist, no church, no preaching, no worship services, no Bible, no set times of prayer, nothing.  What he discovered was that he desperately needed those so-called props to help his wayward heart stay close to the Father!  This reminded  me of a sermon I once heard by the famous Bible expositor Kris Zyp (!).  He spoke on humility and shared an interesting and unexpected twist on it.  He insisted that a mark of humility is our willingness to submit to the rites and rituals that keep us near to God.  To think that we are able to maintain a spiritual depth in our life and grow in Christlikeness without these things is a form of spiritual pride.  That has always stuck with me. 
 One thing I love about going to church with my mother-in-law is the use of liturgy.  I wouldn’t necessarily like it every Sunday, but I do enjoy occasionally it use because, as Foster points out, it keeps us from revolving our entire prayer and religious life around ourselves (as we commonly do in “freestyle” prayer) and the stateliness and formality of liturgy helps us realize that we are in the presence of real Royalty.  Sure, there are plenty of dangers in using liturgy, but we as non-denominational, twenty-something freestylers tend to focus all too often on those and not enough on the benefits.  We criticize what we do not know, so I endeavor to know more about the value of Sacramental Prayer.