C.S. Lewis on Prayer.
C.S. Lewis
Whenever I muster up enough will power and self discipline to lace up my running shoes...I always. Let me repeat...always am glad I went. The weather has been such a tease: a little sunshine and then a bit more rain. A few days ago I got off work, headed home, and decided with the extended sunshine a run was necessary. Here are a few photos I took. My motto in life is: stop and take a photo. I think I appreciate the journey more that way.
Praising is something done often without much forced effort because it is done in a genuine overflowing of enjoyment. C.S. Lewis states, "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment...The delight is isn't complete until it is expressed....It is frustrating to...come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then have to keep silent because they people with you care for it no more than a tin can in a ditch."
I was refreshed in reading a couple things from this quote:
1. Praising God is an expression of delight and enjoyment.
2. It needs to be done in community...It isn't always about expressing your enjoyment but also being present so that others can share there experience/enjoyment/delight with you.
One thing that this chapter also highlighted was that C.S Lewis, "never developed a great love of church services- in spite of thirty-four years of faithful attendance...for him church was a discipline and a difficult one...'Our services' both in their conduct and in our power to participate, are merely attempts at worship; never fully successful, often 99.9 per cent failures, sometimes total failures' But these puny services of corporate praise prepare us, however dimly for an eternal future where praise and delight come together.'"
His words resonate as this struggle has been a part of my heart at times...I am in a process of preparation for eternal praise.
"Shout for joy to God, all the earth...Let the sound of his praise be heard...And I will tell what he has done for my soul."
- Psalm 66:1,8,16
- Amen
This past weekend a dear friend and I took a trip down to Cannon Beach. It was a much needed break for me following a 9-day working stretch. The goal of the trip was to relax, eat good food, drink good beer, and enjoy the weekend sunshine. Here are a few photos from the weekend. I hope you got to enjoy some sunshine too!
Chapter 3 - Brooding
I needed a clear definition of the word before embarking into the chapter.
Brooding: To be deep in thought; meditate.
John Owen, a Puritan theologian, helps to further define meditation:
"By...meditation, I intend the thought of some subject spiritual and divine, with the fixing, forcing, and ordering of our thoughts about it, with a design to affect our own hearts and souls with the matter of it...In meditation our principal aim is the affecting of our own hearts and minds with love, delight, and humiliation."
For me the process of meditation is interrupted by my random thoughts. They blur together and jump from one idea, situation, problem, and solution to the next. Packer remarks that, "our mind goes to and fro, restlessly traveling up and down and all around, but we are aren't getting anywhere."
I really recognized this propensity this weekend as I spent some time resting on the Oregon coast. As I sat by the ocean reading and meditating on God's faithfulness in my life, I found myself needing frequent redirection as my thoughts would wander. I kept coming back to Phil 4:8, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
- Amen
I have been struggling through the process of prayer while reading a book entitled Praying by J.I Packer. I decided in my first post that I wanted to write about what I am learning in each chapter as a form of accountability and place to honestly share my heart in the process.
Chapter 2: The Path and the By-paths
This chapter took me some time to get through. Not sure if it was because I read it over multiple sittings (i.e. before bed reading with heavy eyelids)...
Regardless, there were some interesting quotes and thoughts in this chapter.
A phrase that I keep meditating on was grateful obedience I feel like that phrase is important and I want to unpack it more...
Psalm 16:11 "You made know to me the path of life." J.I. Packer gives a thought that it could mean, "you made know to me the way of responsive, grateful obedience."
For me, it is difficult pray in obedience, when it seems that at times my prayers go unanswered. And yet, He does answer them "in the best way at the best time." J.I. Packer states, "We...are so mixed up and lacking in self-knowledge that we are not always aware what the real desires of our heart are. But when God answers prayer in his way, we are able again to say, 'yes, I now realize that this satisfies me deep down, even more than the things I asked for would have done.'"
"To conclude that God is not answering our prayers unless he matches his answer precisely to the terms of our original request is another by-path; it does us no good to travel there."
This resonates so much truth for me. The more I grow and learn about my passions, desires, and core of my heart, the more I recognize that the things I prayed for...even a few years ago are so far from what my soul needs or wants now. It constantly amazes me how much God knows my heart and yet I don't constantly with grateful obedience present my prayers to him with full confidence that he knows how to meet and satisfy my heart beyond what I could anticipate.
I desire grateful obedience to your will...where the path to life is found.
- Amen
i appreciate a great map. there is something exciting about seeing the world and being able to dream about places to travel and see. i have wanted to find a globe for my studio apartment. there is a shop [metsker maps] in Pike Place Market that's specializes in maps & globes with a few travel guides in between. i got off work early today and decided, since i was downtown, that i would venture in and find a globe.
i found one that i absolutely adore. it is a 12' biscay world globe. the description said: traditional function meets clean modern beauty [fantastic description].
and was surprised to find a user's manual for the globe.
i am a believer that every home needs a map (or a globe).
As a confession: prayer and I have a tenuous relationship.
Since I have a Sunday afternoon with bottomless coffee, I am going to embark on a journey to wrestle with prayer.
Bishop John Charles Ryle (an Anglican bishop of Liverpool, England) states, "Tell me what a man's prayers are, and I will tell you the state of his soul. Prayer is the spiritual pulse."
