As we approach Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday I thought I’d be busier. Holy Week is considered to be a stressful week for pastors. Granted, it’s only Tuesday and the previous weeks have been busier than usual planning and setting up the Walk to the Cross Experience. But I’m finding I have some space to breathe and reflect on the weeks of Lent before cleaning the house for our Easter guests! The word Jeff and I chose to guide us this year is “present.” Usually, I jump in with my interpretation of why God suggested this word to us on January 1! Usually, by the fall I have realized how far off I was in understanding what God wanted to show me with the word of the year! This year I'm taking some time to live with the word before writing about it. So far, I’ve learned that God doesn’t just want me to be more “present” with people in our lives, but to be more “present” with Him as well. Jeff and I chose a Bible study to do together than has a less frantic pace of reading than the previous couple of years. I know I can use more times of solitude—to be “still and know” that God is God and to get reacquainted with myself, so I’ve been working on not working as much. Taking the weeks of Lent to slow down and contemplate the Lord’s Prayer has been such a blessing to me. When I say the prayer now, I am more “present” in the process—I’ve learned to savor it like a piece of good chocolate rather than gobbling it up without even tasting it. I pray that those of you who took the journey with me have learned to be present in the prayer too.
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The Youversion study on The Lord’s Prayer we did earlier in Lent started with a story about a French monk named Bernard of Clairvaux. Whenever Bernard tried to say the Lord’s Prayer, he’d get distracted. He’d start praying and suddenly find his thoughts had wandered in other directions. Bernard complained about this to a friend, but the friend thought Bernard was being ridiculous. “It’s not that hard, Bernard, you just have to concentrate.” In response, Bernard said he would give his friend his horse if he could pray the Lord’s Prayer without getting distracted. The friend eagerly took the bet, cleared his mind, and began praying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Before the next line, he stopped and asked, “Wait, does the saddle come with the horse?” Do you ever get distracted while praying even a short prayer that you know well like the Lord’s Prayer? I confess it has to me! After listening to this story of Bernard, I decided if I caught my mind wandering while saying the Lord’s Prayer, I would start over. I won’t tell you how many times I had to start over in just one day! This morning, I caught myself dividing people into us and them while saying the Lord’s Prayer! I’d preached on the line “lead us…not into temptation but deliver us from evil” last Sunday. One of my points was that we petition God to “lead us” not just lead “me,” as an individual. One of the ways we can fall prey to evil is to divide people up into us and them categories. I hadn’t even gotten to that line in the Lord’s Prayer yet and my mind, influenced by some news item I’d read during breakfast, had already been led into temptation to think of people as “them” rather than “us.” 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” We live in a world that constantly seek to distract and tempt us. Knowing in what ways I am susceptible to temptations and distractions—and staying alert for signs of them, can help me to avoid falling prey to them. Staying focused while I am saying the Lord’s Prayer is a way to “discipline” myself and prepare to face distractions. |
Pastor CathyPastor Cathy has been appointed to Tyner UMC since July 2019; she also is a part-time writing instructor at Bethel University in Mishawaka. Archives
July 2022
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