We’re looking at prayer from a different starting point
Not as getting God to do something
• But as positioning ourselves to awaken to what God is already doing, has already done
God has already extended the love we need
God has already extended the wisdom we need
God has extended provision and resource
God has extended healing and restoration
All these, God has already extended…
• It is already present…
• It is right here in us, among us, present and here
We do not have to wrangle these things from God
• We do not have to plead, plead, plead for them
• They are part of the deal of being alive
• Part of what it means to be loved by God
• Part of the package of following Jesus
The hard things we grapple with…
Some missing element of love/affection/parenting…
• Consequently, we carry into life habits that hurt us, hurt the people around us
• I’ve had at least 5 conversations along these lines this week
Or we can’t seem to stay on track w/ the disciplines of life,
• can’t seem to develop healthy habits for our bodies, our minds, our relationships
Or, we grapple w/ a sense of worth…
Either bolstering our self-esteem w/ bravado, or being beaten up by its absence
Or, we’re always worried about stuff
• Worrying about making mistakes…
• About what will happen in the future…
• About what people think of us…
• About financial stability…
• About the kids futures…
And a perennial problem for most of us… some addiction or another
• I drink too much, I zone out w/ TV too much, I eat too much, I look at porn too much
• I medicate my pain w/ fantasies, or buying stuff
these are things we deal with in life
these and hundreds others just like them
and it is in the context of these life-challenges that we are rethinking prayer
when prayer is about getting God to do stuff, our prayers exist to help us face these life challenges
• Lord, heal my lost sense of self
• Lord, help me be consistent w/ self-disciplines
• Lord, deliver me from this bondage, this addiction
• Lord, free me from worry
• Lord, provide for my need
• Lord, cure my child
And as we’ve said several times in this series…
• These prayers are perfectly appropriate
Paul taught us to bring these kinds of concerns to God
In Phil…
• Don’t be anxious about those things that concern you
• Instead, present your requests to God
• And allow the peace of God, which transcends those concerns, to guard your heart and mind
So yes, we take our concerns to God
• We ask God to do stuff
But as the journey progresses, we discover there is more to life than the concerns of our days
We are created for God
• We are one with God
• And prayer is the means by which we move into the experience of that oneness
• Prayer is the means of mystical union w/ God
And as such, prayer becomes a journey of awareness
• Awareness of indwelling presence of God that already is
• Awareness of benevolence of God’s universe – already is
• Awareness of the healing and restorative power of God, which already is
• Awareness of wholeness and freedom of life – already is
All these are already present in us for God is in us
• All of these are present among us…
• We are the Body of Christ together
• The extension of God in our union one w/ another
We are the hands of God on this earth, the mind of God on this earth, the heart of God on this earth
• Jesus said it this way: be agents of God’s Kingdom
• Establish the economy of God on earth (generosity)
• Work toward the politics of God o the earth (justice)
• Work toward the social order of God on earth (compassion)
And we do this, as we become aware of what already is…
• We become aware of the heart of God that already is
• We become aware of purposes of God which already are
• We discern what God has already wired into us/the system
Prayer then, becomes a practice of awareness-building
• And as we move into this dimension of the journey…
• Prayer as getting God to do stuff begins to fade and prayer as becoming aware of God begins to ascend
So…
A new assumption
And on that new assumption, building some new practices
That’s what we’ve been talking about
The first movement in this new practice…
• Come to God
• Be as honest as you can with who/where you are
We looked at the psalms of lament
• And then said that these are heroic prayers
• Too difficult for the beginner
• Very difficult to come to God and be honest when all hell is breaking loose around us
As such, we talked about developing the practice of coming to God when times are not as difficult
And being as honest as we can with who/where we are
…when we’re not in a really tough place
We talked about this first movement in the dance, as a movement of self-awareness
• Coming to know ourselves
• Coming to look at that which we have usually worked very had to avoid
• Moving past the coping strategies that we have constructed
• Those strategies we’ve created to avoid that internal fear in us that says there’s something terribly wrong w/ us
And in that simple practice, we said…
• We, like the ancients, discover…
• That when we don’t avoid this inner dread…
• But look at it square on, face on…
• We experience the redemption, restoration, and wholeness, that is ours in God
So if prayer is dancing w/ the Divine…
• The first movement of prayer is to look at ourselves
• The first movement of prayer is a movement of self-awareness
The second movement then, is one of God-awareness
Now this is a tough one…
• Our fundamental beliefs tell us that God is unknowable
• The theological term we use is “transcendent”
• We are created beings
• As such, our capacities cannot contain the mind, will, purposes, and plans of that which created us
• God is beyond our comprehensions
Consequently, all we have are images for God
• All we have are metaphors and similes
• God is like this… God is like that…
• We can experience this or that dimension of God when we think of God as…
• Father, Prince, King, Counselor, Bridegroom
• And that is very good.
However, these images are by definition incomplete
• And in their incompleteness, sometimes they become hindrances to experiencing God even more fully
So, the second movement in prayer built on a different assumption, is to question our God-images
• Bring them before Spirit of God for regular adjustment
Interestingly, though this movement is critical to prayer practice built on a different assumption…
• The movement itself, doesn’t look much like prayer
When we think of prayer, we have mental videotape images
• On this video, we’re bowing our head, closing our eyes
• We’re saying words to God
• Or we’re meditating in silence
• Or we’re practicing a prayer language
• Or we’re reflecting on a spiritual passage
• Or we’re reflecting on God’s presence in nature
But whatever our video image of praying is, we’re doing something that connotes “praying”
• We’re doing a “praying” kind of action
This second movement, however…
Doesn’t evoke any of those tangible video images
• It’s more like thinking, or talking, or considering
• Instead of a praying mode…
• We’re reflecting on the nature of God
• Reflecting more deeply on the nature of Reality
• Considering the limitations of our current view of Truth
We’re asking ourselves, how do I picture God?
• And we’re taking answer to that question to God, to Spirit
• Who is this God we are dancing with?
We consider our longterm perceptions of God
We consider our immediate, right now, perceptions of God
For some there is an unspoken image of God as a rigid bureaucrat
• You’ve got to get your prayer vocabulary just right
• You’ve got to get your prayer forms filled out properly…
• Say the right words, access the right biblical principles
• And once you’ve got your prayer ducks in a row…
• Once you’ve satisfied the celestial red tape
…then, you can get present your case to God
…then your appeal will be heard
For others, our image of God is distant and occupied
• Far away, and busy
• Perhaps we picked this up from busy/occupied parent
But whatever the image is, there it is, running in the background
• Unquestioned, unchallenged, and affecting our ability to dance
• For if our dance partner begins to move in a way we had not anticipated…
• Our assumptions won’t allow us to go with the give/take
STORY:
There was a captain in the Roman guard, lived in Caesarea
• His name was Cornelius
• He was a good guy, a spiritual guy
• But he was not one of the “chosen people”
• He was an outsider, one of the people considered unclean to Jewish people like Peter
Peter was subject to all kinds of purity laws
• All the devout people followed them
• God had commanded them in the wilderness years ago
• They diligently obeyed; it was their religion
• They washed themselves certain ways: that’s what God told them to do
• They ate certain foods, avoided others, God told them to
• They associated with outsiders according to certain prescribed codes: again, the law of God
So this angel appears to Cornelius and tells him to go meet Peter
• At this meeting, he was told, he would receive help to move forward on his spiritual journey
• So he sends off three of his employees to find Peter and set up the meeting
• They travel to town called Joppa, about 30 miles away
The next day as the three travelers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon. Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: “Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.”
Peter said, “Oh, no, Lord. I’ve never so much as tasted food that was not kosher.” The voice came a second time: “If God says it’s okay to eat, eat.” Now this happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.
Peter was sitting puzzled, trying to figure out what it all meant, when the men sent by Cornelius showed up at his front door. They called in, asking if there was a Peter staying there. Peter, lost in thought, didn’t hear them, so the Spirit whispered to him, “Three men are knocking at the door looking for you. Get down there and go with them. Don’t ask any questions. I sent them to you.” Peter went down and said to the men, “I think I’m the man you’re looking for. What’s up?” They said, “Captain Cornelius, a God-fearing man… [so forth, so on]… was commanded by an angel to get you and bring you to his house so he could hear what you had to say.”
Peter invited them in and made them feel at home.
The next day, he went w/ them
Now this was an epic paradigm shift
• Critical in world history, in the history of religion, and in the history of our own religious tradition
• God was one way, and then poof! God was another way
• God had prescribed certain way to be holy, and then poof!
• All that went out the window, and a new form of holiness emerged
Peter’s image of God had been set in concrete
• And a jackhammer broke up that concrete
• And as one preconception about God was swallowed by a new and improved one…
• It allowed Peter to live and act more kindly, more justly, more equitably
• It allowed him to be more inclusive of people he had previously rejected
Peter’s reconditioned view of God changed everything
That day, Peter was engaged in a kind of prayer founded on the assumption that God is already doing something
• God was already loving Jews and Gentiles alike
• God had already broken down the laws of performance-driven spirituality
• Do this and you’re a good person
• Do that, and you’re a bad one
…all that was already broken down in God
…and at prayer that day, Peter simply became aware of what already was
His preconceptions about God were challenged
• His expectation of what God does/does not do was challenged
• His reality was shifted
• His spirituality was shifted
He was better able to sense and respond to the give/take that comprises dancing w/ the Divine
—
Last week, I read you a prayer from Larry Crabb’s book, I told you would be a good companion to this message
The prayer was one of coming to God, being as honest as possible with who/where he was
It went like this…
Just last night we got word that the son of close friends is taking his first step out of a pigpen of living he’s been in for a long time. Our first impulse was to pray, “God, thanks for answering prayers for this kid, and, please, turn his life around.”
We care deeply for this family, but neither of us had much energy for that kind of familiar prayer. We stopped ourselves and decided to try to pray relationally.
Rachael told God how hopeful she felt. I told God that I was cautiously excited. That was the beginning of our conversation with God. It was how we presented ourselves to God. It took about five minutes to think about it, discern it, and say it to God.
You will recall that prayer from last week…
• Come to God; be as honest as you can
But I only read the first movement of that prayer…
Today, I’ll keep reading as it moves into the 2nd movement
Challenging our God-images
Then we began to consider how we were thinking about God. Who was this God we were talking to? How were we seeing Him, right then? Was He a reluctant judge who would grant our requests if we made them properly? Was He distant and occupied with bigger things? Or perhaps He was a scowling Father who was muttering “It’s about time this rotten kid straightened out”?
As we talked about it, the image surfaced of a father hoisting his robes and running out to welcome the prodigal home. We believed that image bubbled up from the Spirit of God within us, using our familiarity with the stories of the Bible. We believe we heard from God. It made us feel a little more eager to continue the conversation. That was our version of attending to God.
In this very simple prayer (we’ll hear more of it in future weeks)…
• A dance has begun
• A beloved child has run amok, and is making a turn back
• In the flow of that pretty ordinary life circumstance, the author and his wife have chosen to dance with the Divine
• The first movement of their dance was to come to God
To be as honest as they could w/ who/where they were
This next movement in the dance was to challenge their God-images
• For many, we have had some recalcitrant curmudgeon authority figure in our lives
• And for many, we unconsciously project this image onto God; onto the Universe, onto Ultimacy
• We unconsciously respond to the Mind of God, the Heart of the Universe as we would to a curmudgeon
w/o consciously considering it, we have a gut feel…
• God is usually male
• And probably upset w/ hellish way this kid’s been living
• He’ll probably let the kid back in his good graces…
…if the kid continues to straighten up and fly right
Now, nobody ever says this…
• We rarely even think this
• It’s like a virus program running in the background
• It doesn’t do anything, but it sure keeps a lot of things from happening
In this case, dance step kinds of things
But in this prayer…
• Instead of letting an unchallenged assumption sit in their souls and affect the dance…
• The author and his wife opened themselves to the presence of Spirit w/in them
• And as they did, an image came to them
• A picture of prodigal father, with robes flailing around his legs, sprinting out after his hell-raising son
• Breathing hard from the sprint, wrapping his skinny, rag-clad son up in his arms
…the very son who had blown ½ the family fortune on dope and prostitutes
And picking up the skinny, addicted, raggedy son, he won’t even allow him to deliver his speech of shame/repentance
• He just loves him, loves him, loves him
This image, they believed, was the image born of Spirit w/in them
• This image of God was the image appropriate to their current moment of dance w/ the Divine
• This image was the image to loosen them up for the give and take of the dance w/ God in prayer
The first movement had to do w/ bringing our current level of awareness about ourselves to Spirit for clarity
• This second movement has to do with bringing our current level of awareness about Divine to Spirit for clarity
How we think about God determines how we think about one another
• How we think about God determines how we think about what it means to live well
• How we think about God determines how we treat people, how we handle stress, how we deal w/ fear
All of life is determined by the underlying story that guides our beliefs about the way things are
• And what we think of God is the critical element in that underlying story
So, we begin looking at this second movement in the dance
• The second movement in prayer as call/response
• The second movement in a give/take experience w/ Spirit
We bring our perceptions about God to Spirit for clarity
Now next week, we’ll consider some of the common images we have of God, and how they can disrupt the dance
We’re looking at prayer from a different starting point
Not as getting God to do something
• But as positioning ourselves to awaken to what God is already doing, has already done
God has already extended the love we need
God has already extended the wisdom we need
God has extended provision and resource
God has extended healing and restoration
All these, God has already extended…
• It is already present…
• It is right here in us, among us, present and here
We do not have to wrangle these things from God
• We do not have to plead, plead, plead for them
• They are part of the deal of being alive
• Part of what it means to be loved by God
• Part of the package of following Jesus
The hard things we grapple with…
Some missing element of love/affection/parenting…
• Consequently, we carry into life habits that hurt us, hurt the people around us
• I’ve had at least 5 conversations along these lines this week
Or we can’t seem to stay on track w/ the disciplines of life,
• can’t seem to develop healthy habits for our bodies, our minds, our relationships
Or, we grapple w/ a sense of worth…
Either bolstering our self-esteem w/ bravado, or being beaten up by its absence
Or, we’re always worried about stuff
• Worrying about making mistakes…
• About what will happen in the future…
• About what people think of us…
• About financial stability…
• About the kids futures…
And a perennial problem for most of us… some addiction or another
• I drink too much, I zone out w/ TV too much, I eat too much, I look at porn too much
• I medicate my pain w/ fantasies, or buying stuff
these are things we deal with in life
these and hundreds others just like them
and it is in the context of these life-challenges that we are rethinking prayer
when prayer is about getting God to do stuff, our prayers exist to help us face these life challenges
• Lord, heal my lost sense of self
• Lord, help me be consistent w/ self-disciplines
• Lord, deliver me from this bondage, this addiction
• Lord, free me from worry
• Lord, provide for my need
• Lord, cure my child
And as we’ve said several times in this series…
• These prayers are perfectly appropriate
Paul taught us to bring these kinds of concerns to God
In Phil…
• Don’t be anxious about those things that concern you
• Instead, present your requests to God
• And allow the peace of God, which transcends those concerns, to guard your heart and mind
So yes, we take our concerns to God
• We ask God to do stuff
But as the journey progresses, we discover there is more to life than the concerns of our days
We are created for God
• We are one with God
• And prayer is the means by which we move into the experience of that oneness
• Prayer is the means of mystical union w/ God
And as such, prayer becomes a journey of awareness
• Awareness of indwelling presence of God that already is
• Awareness of benevolence of God’s universe – already is
• Awareness of the healing and restorative power of God, which already is
• Awareness of wholeness and freedom of life – already is
All these are already present in us for God is in us
• All of these are present among us…
• We are the Body of Christ together
• The extension of God in our union one w/ another
We are the hands of God on this earth, the mind of God on this earth, the heart of God on this earth
• Jesus said it this way: be agents of God’s Kingdom
• Establish the economy of God on earth (generosity)
• Work toward the politics of God o the earth (justice)
• Work toward the social order of God on earth (compassion)
And we do this, as we become aware of what already is…
• We become aware of the heart of God that already is
• We become aware of purposes of God which already are
• We discern what God has already wired into us/the system
Prayer then, becomes a practice of awareness-building
• And as we move into this dimension of the journey…
• Prayer as getting God to do stuff begins to fade and prayer as becoming aware of God begins to ascend
So…
A new assumption
And on that new assumption, building some new practices
That’s what we’ve been talking about
The first movement in this new practice…
• Come to God
• Be as honest as you can with who/where you are
We looked at the psalms of lament
• And then said that these are heroic prayers
• Too difficult for the beginner
• Very difficult to come to God and be honest when all hell is breaking loose around us
As such, we talked about developing the practice of coming to God when times are not as difficult
And being as honest as we can with who/where we are
…when we’re not in a really tough place
We talked about this first movement in the dance, as a movement of self-awareness
• Coming to know ourselves
• Coming to look at that which we have usually worked very had to avoid
• Moving past the coping strategies that we have constructed
• Those strategies we’ve created to avoid that internal fear in us that says there’s something terribly wrong w/ us
And in that simple practice, we said…
• We, like the ancients, discover…
• That when we don’t avoid this inner dread…
• But look at it square on, face on…
• We experience the redemption, restoration, and wholeness, that is ours in God
So if prayer is dancing w/ the Divine…
• The first movement of prayer is to look at ourselves
• The first movement of prayer is a movement of self-awareness
The second movement then, is one of God-awareness
Now this is a tough one…
• Our fundamental beliefs tell us that God is unknowable
• The theological term we use is “transcendent”
• We are created beings
• As such, our capacities cannot contain the mind, will, purposes, and plans of that which created us
• God is beyond our comprehensions
Consequently, all we have are images for God
• All we have are metaphors and similes
• God is like this… God is like that…
• We can experience this or that dimension of God when we think of God as…
• Father, Prince, King, Counselor, Bridegroom
• And that is very good.
However, these images are by definition incomplete
• And in their incompleteness, sometimes they become hindrances to experiencing God even more fully
So, the second movement in prayer built on a different assumption, is to question our God-images
• Bring them before Spirit of God for regular adjustment
Interestingly, though this movement is critical to prayer practice built on a different assumption…
• The movement itself, doesn’t look much like prayer
When we think of prayer, we have mental videotape images
• On this video, we’re bowing our head, closing our eyes
• We’re saying words to God
• Or we’re meditating in silence
• Or we’re practicing a prayer language
• Or we’re reflecting on a spiritual passage
• Or we’re reflecting on God’s presence in nature
But whatever our video image of praying is, we’re doing something that connotes “praying”
• We’re doing a “praying” kind of action
This second movement, however…
Doesn’t evoke any of those tangible video images
• It’s more like thinking, or talking, or considering
• Instead of a praying mode…
• We’re reflecting on the nature of God
• Reflecting more deeply on the nature of Reality
• Considering the limitations of our current view of Truth
We’re asking ourselves, how do I picture God?
• And we’re taking answer to that question to God, to Spirit
• Who is this God we are dancing with?
We consider our longterm perceptions of God
We consider our immediate, right now, perceptions of God
For some there is an unspoken image of God as a rigid bureaucrat
• You’ve got to get your prayer vocabulary just right
• You’ve got to get your prayer forms filled out properly…
• Say the right words, access the right biblical principles
• And once you’ve got your prayer ducks in a row…
• Once you’ve satisfied the celestial red tape
…then, you can get present your case to God
…then your appeal will be heard
For others, our image of God is distant and occupied
• Far away, and busy
• Perhaps we picked this up from busy/occupied parent
But whatever the image is, there it is, running in the background
• Unquestioned, unchallenged, and affecting our ability to dance
• For if our dance partner begins to move in a way we had not anticipated…
• Our assumptions won’t allow us to go with the give/take
STORY:
There was a captain in the Roman guard, lived in Caesarea
• His name was Cornelius
• He was a good guy, a spiritual guy
• But he was not one of the “chosen people”
• He was an outsider, one of the people considered unclean to Jewish people like Peter
Peter was subject to all kinds of purity laws
• All the devout people followed them
• God had commanded them in the wilderness years ago
• They diligently obeyed; it was their religion
• They washed themselves certain ways: that’s what God told them to do
• They ate certain foods, avoided others, God told them to
• They associated with outsiders according to certain prescribed codes: again, the law of God
So this angel appears to Cornelius and tells him to go meet Peter
• At this meeting, he was told, he would receive help to move forward on his spiritual journey
• So he sends off three of his employees to find Peter and set up the meeting
• They travel to town called Joppa, about 30 miles away
The next day as the three travelers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon. Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: “Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.”
Peter said, “Oh, no, Lord. I’ve never so much as tasted food that was not kosher.” The voice came a second time: “If God says it’s okay to eat, eat.” Now this happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.
Peter was sitting puzzled, trying to figure out what it all meant, when the men sent by Cornelius showed up at his front door. They called in, asking if there was a Peter staying there. Peter, lost in thought, didn’t hear them, so the Spirit whispered to him, “Three men are knocking at the door looking for you. Get down there and go with them. Don’t ask any questions. I sent them to you.” Peter went down and said to the men, “I think I’m the man you’re looking for. What’s up?” They said, “Captain Cornelius, a God-fearing man… [so forth, so on]… was commanded by an angel to get you and bring you to his house so he could hear what you had to say.”
Peter invited them in and made them feel at home.
The next day, he went w/ them
Now this was an epic paradigm shift
• Critical in world history, in the history of religion, and in the history of our own religious tradition
• God was one way, and then poof! God was another way
• God had prescribed certain way to be holy, and then poof!
• All that went out the window, and a new form of holiness emerged
Peter’s image of God had been set in concrete
• And a jackhammer broke up that concrete
• And as one preconception about God was swallowed by a new and improved one…
• It allowed Peter to live and act more kindly, more justly, more equitably
• It allowed him to be more inclusive of people he had previously rejected
Peter’s reconditioned view of God changed everything
That day, Peter was engaged in a kind of prayer founded on the assumption that God is already doing something
• God was already loving Jews and Gentiles alike
• God had already broken down the laws of performance-driven spirituality
• Do this and you’re a good person
• Do that, and you’re a bad one
…all that was already broken down in God
…and at prayer that day, Peter simply became aware of what already was
His preconceptions about God were challenged
• His expectation of what God does/does not do was challenged
• His reality was shifted
• His spirituality was shifted
He was better able to sense and respond to the give/take that comprises dancing w/ the Divine
—
Last week, I read you a prayer from Larry Crabb’s book, I told you would be a good companion to this message
The prayer was one of coming to God, being as honest as possible with who/where he was
It went like this…
Just last night we got word that the son of close friends is taking his first step out of a pigpen of living he’s been in for a long time. Our first impulse was to pray, “God, thanks for answering prayers for this kid, and, please, turn his life around.”
We care deeply for this family, but neither of us had much energy for that kind of familiar prayer. We stopped ourselves and decided to try to pray relationally.
Rachael told God how hopeful she felt. I told God that I was cautiously excited. That was the beginning of our conversation with God. It was how we presented ourselves to God. It took about five minutes to think about it, discern it, and say it to God.
You will recall that prayer from last week…
• Come to God; be as honest as you can
But I only read the first movement of that prayer…
Today, I’ll keep reading as it moves into the 2nd movement
Challenging our God-images
Then we began to consider how we were thinking about God. Who was this God we were talking to? How were we seeing Him, right then? Was He a reluctant judge who would grant our requests if we made them properly? Was He distant and occupied with bigger things? Or perhaps He was a scowling Father who was muttering “It’s about time this rotten kid straightened out”?
As we talked about it, the image surfaced of a father hoisting his robes and running out to welcome the prodigal home. We believed that image bubbled up from the Spirit of God within us, using our familiarity with the stories of the Bible. We believe we heard from God. It made us feel a little more eager to continue the conversation. That was our version of attending to God.
In this very simple prayer (we’ll hear more of it in future weeks)…
• A dance has begun
• A beloved child has run amok, and is making a turn back
• In the flow of that pretty ordinary life circumstance, the author and his wife have chosen to dance with the Divine
• The first movement of their dance was to come to God
To be as honest as they could w/ who/where they were
This next movement in the dance was to challenge their God-images
• For many, we have had some recalcitrant curmudgeon authority figure in our lives
• And for many, we unconsciously project this image onto God; onto the Universe, onto Ultimacy
• We unconsciously respond to the Mind of God, the Heart of the Universe as we would to a curmudgeon
w/o consciously considering it, we have a gut feel…
• God is usually male
• And probably upset w/ hellish way this kid’s been living
• He’ll probably let the kid back in his good graces…
…if the kid continues to straighten up and fly right
Now, nobody ever says this…
• We rarely even think this
• It’s like a virus program running in the background
• It doesn’t do anything, but it sure keeps a lot of things from happening
In this case, dance step kinds of things
But in this prayer…
• Instead of letting an unchallenged assumption sit in their souls and affect the dance…
• The author and his wife opened themselves to the presence of Spirit w/in them
• And as they did, an image came to them
• A picture of prodigal father, with robes flailing around his legs, sprinting out after his hell-raising son
• Breathing hard from the sprint, wrapping his skinny, rag-clad son up in his arms
…the very son who had blown ½ the family fortune on dope and prostitutes
And picking up the skinny, addicted, raggedy son, he won’t even allow him to deliver his speech of shame/repentance
• He just loves him, loves him, loves him
This image, they believed, was the image born of Spirit w/in them
• This image of God was the image appropriate to their current moment of dance w/ the Divine
• This image was the image to loosen them up for the give and take of the dance w/ God in prayer
The first movement had to do w/ bringing our current level of awareness about ourselves to Spirit for clarity
• This second movement has to do with bringing our current level of awareness about Divine to Spirit for clarity
How we think about God determines how we think about one another
• How we think about God determines how we think about what it means to live well
• How we think about God determines how we treat people, how we handle stress, how we deal w/ fear
All of life is determined by the underlying story that guides our beliefs about the way things are
• And what we think of God is the critical element in that underlying story
So, we begin looking at this second movement in the dance
• The second movement in prayer as call/response
• The second movement in a give/take experience w/ Spirit
We bring our perceptions about God to Spirit for clarity
Now next week, we’ll consider some of the common images we have of God, and how they can disrupt the dance