I was given a book by a good friend of mine - He's a chaplain over in Australia at a private boys school. Someone I've known for a super long time. In fact, he's been in my life through all of the big stuff.
I have to say I'm really quite enjoying the read. It hasn't been one of those books that I sit down and just devour - but more a book to snack on. :)
So, I thought I'd share some of the last little thought provoking bits.
"You can't pray for people without being changed by those prayers. A pastor taking another parish spoke these words of warning to the congregation in his good-bye sermon:
Sometime I'd like to hear someone say, "Pray for me," and have the person they're asking say, "No, I'd be afraid of doing that. It would require us to become too connected. If I prayed for you I would no longer be able to objectify you and it would change our relationship in ways I would find unsettling. Praying for you would also pull me out of my narcissistic selfishness and force me to contemplate the ineffable power of God in my life which would also be uncomfortable. So thank you, but I just can't.
To pray for someone is to enter into a reciprocal relationship of life transformation."
He goes on to talk about how we need to make our life a prayer. It shouldn't so much be to pray the Lord's Prayer, but to become it. When everything that we do is offered up as a prayer to God, then we become that prayer. "
God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline.
~ Timothy 1:7
Taken from Learn to Dance the Soul Salsa by Leonard Sweet, 2000. pg 36,37
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2 comments:
Good words there - why don't we say what we really mean? ec
I was here finally! (Sept)
After all, Jesus was a man of prayer.
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