A Prayer for Discernment

This past week, I have tried to begin each day by surrendering myself to God and asking Him to heighten my senses that I may better hear Him speak to me throughout the day. I am learning to be patient and expectantly wait for Him to speak to me. Below is a prayer that I have been using to center myself each morning. It comes from A Book of Uncommon Prayer by Kenneth G. Phifer.

Almighty God, who has called and called
and whom I seldom hear,
Let my heart be open now and my spirit alert to your voice.
I know you understand
that it is not always out of sheer indifference
that I do not hear.
Your voice is still and small,
as a long ago prophet said,
and the other voices are so loud and demanding.
You never speak in thunder.
Your comings are not marked by the roll of drums
or the blast of trumpets.
I wish you would speak louder.
I wish your advents were plainer.
But you persist in speaking in quiet ways
and coming in a fashion
that makes it easy for me to ignore you.
Now I am listening.
Say something, O God, to me.
I am waiting.
Amen.

I would encourage each of you to begin your day with such a prayer. What is it that God is trying to reveal to you?

Discerning the Voice of God

Many thanks to all the people who have taken a look at my little blog. I have been amazed to see, that what started as a way to deal with the grief of losing a loved one, has grown so quickly! There have been almost 500 views with viewers spanning 6 continents. I am humbled that so many people are interested in my ramblings. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope that you have been able to find a little peace and inspiration in what you find here.

Recently I have had the opportunity to reconnect with a group of women with whom I used to attend church. This group of women was precious to me and we spent many hours studying together, going on retreat together, supporting one another through life's difficult times, and celebrating each others successes. What a blessing for me to be able to reconnect with such a wonderful group. You know that the people are special when you can walk into a room after 15 years and it's as if you were never apart!

We are meeting together weekly to study Priscilla Shirer's Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When God Speaks. This is certainly a study that is relevant to me. As I enter into this next season of my life, I am anxious to know what God has planned for me. I am trying to learn to be still (no easy feat) and listen for what God has to say to me.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that God still speaks to us today. We can read the Bible and find stories about God speaking to the people of old. He spoke to Moses from a burning bush but I am afraid that I have never experienced anything quite so dramatic. Most of the time my conversations with God tend to be one sided. It seems that I spend a lot of time talking but never much time listening. When I stop to think about it, I realize that I never expected God to speak to me. I figured communication with God included me talking and him listening.

Priscilla Shirer tells a story that epitomizes this model of communication. She tells about asking her husband which pair of shoes he thought looked best with an outfit. She states that she had already made up her mind, but asked her husband anyway. Her husband was hesitant to give a response and answered, "Why are you asking me? You're going to do what you want to do anyway!"

I wonder if this is what we do when we try to talk to God. We ask for his guidance, but really we have already made up our mind. We're planning to move forward with our own plan without stopping to hear what he may have to say. We are willing to follow God as long as it's comfortable and lines up with what we think is best.

I'm guilty. How about you? This week I am planning to work on not only talking to God, but actually listening for what he has to say to me. Hababkkuk 2:1 says, "I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me." I love that. "I will station myself on the rampart and I will keep watch..." Hababkkuk expected God to speak. He stood watch and waited to hear God's voice. He didn't rush off to implement his own plan. He expected God to speak and waited until he did so. That is what I am going to try this week. To stand watch and see what God will speak to me.

I hope you will join me this week and listen for God's voice. Be patient; expect him to speak.

If you would like, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. I always enjoy hearing from you and learning what God is doing in your life.

Wouldn't It Be Grand To Be An Angel?

I am a nurse and I have spent the better part of the last ten years working with and caring for cancer patients. For me, this has been a great privilege. I stand in awe of the men and women who bravely face this disease and do so with such grace and integrity. So many of them refer to those of us who care for them as "angels," but I think they are the ones who are angels. In the past ten years, I have learned more from my patients about life, love, and facing whatever life throws at you than I did in all my years before I became a nurse. I now know that no matter how difficult life gets, there is a way to face it with grace and dignity.

One of my patients gave me a book by Ann Weems called Kneeling in Bethlehem. In the book she marked a poem that I would like to share with you. Every time I read it, it brings a smile to my face. I hope it makes you smile as well.

Wouldn't It Be Grand To Be An Angel?

Wouldn't it be grand to be an angel
and have as your address
"The Realms of the Glory of God"?

And swing on rainbows,
and gather stars in your pockets,
winging in and out of earth in a flurry of moondust
with the messages of God?

Comforting the distressed, warning the righteous,
delivering the just, guarding little children?

Of course, we can comfort and warn
and deliver and guard.

Maybe, if we get that right,
we can swing on rainbows later.

I hope so. I hope that I can get it right and swing on a rainbow someday. Every time I see a rainbow I imagine Becca swinging along it's colorful arcs. And each night when I gaze at the stars, I am sure that Becca has gathered them together and their light is shining down on me as she gathers the stars into her pocket.

Thanks, Becca. Thanks for sharing your light with me.

To whom will you be an angel this week? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Letting go of unrealistic expectations

Patti Digh, in her book life is a verb, tells a story about her favorite pair of jeans. Perhaps you have such a pair of jeans. You know what I'm talking about, a pair of jeans that fit you perfectly, are comfortably worn in, and have faded to the perfect shade of blue. Patti had owned her jeans since high school. She had worn them on dates and while hanging out with friends. After she graduated from high school, she took them to college with her. She had traveled around the world while wearing them.

But, as happens, years passed and a time came when she could no longer fit into her favorite jeans. For years, she worked to achieve her goal of getting back into those jeans. She spent hours working out in gyms and tried every diet that came along. Yet, even though there were minor successes, she still could not fit into her jeans. Day after day she would look into her closet and see those jeans hanging there, taunting her. Every time she saw those jeans she felt a sense of failure.

One day her daughter, who was in the sixth grade, was complaining about not having anything to wear to school. So Patti pulled the jeans out of the closet and tossed them to her daughter suggesting that she might enjoy the retro look. She expected for the jeans to be too large but thought that with a belt perhaps it would work. But guess what, a few minutes later her daughter returned the jeans saying, "Thanks, but they're too small."

For thirty years Patti had spent countless hours working to achieve the goal of getting into a pair of jeans that were too small for her thin, athletic twelve year old daughter. For thirty years she had been beating herself up because she was unable to achieve a goal that was unrealistic.

Patti Digh went on to say that once she thought about it, she realized that fitting into the jeans was not even the real goal. The jeans represented a time when her life had been more carefree and simpler. She said the goal she should have been reaching for was a less stressful way of living rather fitting into a pair a jeans her twelve year old daughter could not wear.

How often do we do this to ourselves? How often do we set ourselves up for failure by having unrealistic expectations? Think about your own life and replace the word jeans with whatever it is that is following you through life and setting you up for failure.

There can be real danger in staying focused on unrealistic expectations. We can become so focused on unrealistic goals that we fail to recognize and enjoy the real life right in front of us. Don't miss out on the beauty and joy in the world because you are too busy punishing yourself for not achieving something unrealistic.

Working toward your goals should make you feel good and provide a sense of accomplishment. This week I would encourage you to examine your goals. Are they unworthy, unreachable, or unreasonable? Do they make you feel bad? Or do they make you feel good, right, and strong? Eliminate those goals that limit and minimize you. Make your goals challenging, not destructive. Look behind your goals to see if they are even the real goals.

Don't miss out on the life that is in front of you. Like Patti, ask yourself, "Is it the jeans or is it something else I want?"

If you would like to share your thoughts, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.