Scraping at the Sky...Prayer Part 2

Psalm 69:13
"But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, at an acceptable time;
O God, in the greatness of Your lovingkindness,
Answer me with Your saving truth."

My life points to the testimony of God's saving truth. Not because I'm perfect, and not because I have it all figured out, rather simply because I'm here (and not in a passive kind of way). I'm here fighting the fight as best as I can. I'm trying and fighting to make the right decisions. I have enemies at all sides. But I live. The LORD protects me, because for some reason He likes me. His lovingkindness is great.

Of Ceilings and Floors...Prayer Part 1

Some people feel like their prayers don't get through the ceiling. The prayers just sort of float up there and gather on the horizontal drywall. Lately, I've been praying that angels would take sledge hammers to roofs. If your home starts leaking...Please don't blame me.

I learned something valuable in my well-worn 27 years. My prayer life is a desperate one. Prayer is becoming a reflex for me. It's funny, you'd think that the older you get the more experienced at life you'd be. But no. The older you get, the bigger the responsibilities, requirements, trials, and enemies. Lately the weight of all these things have been closing in on me. So my posture has been one of grabbing fists full of carpet, and yelling at the floor. David (the shepherd boy made into King) once wrote, "I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears."

People cope with life in different ways. The dictionary defines to "cope" as: To contend with difficulties and act to overcome them. It's funny, the way most people try to cope is to do something to make themselves feel better for the time-being, but it doesn't "act to overcome them"...it just makes a bigger hole than the original one. This has given, what I believe is, only half meaning of the word in the US culture. Prayer is coping, in it's full meaning. I have no chance at overcoming the overcomable, but God can. So I pray. And He keeps tabs whether I'm yelling them at the floor or screaming them at the ceiling. David also said, "You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?"

Pray. You'll be surprised how affective it is.

OF WAR AND PEACE

Philo of Alexandria once said, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." It's true. As sure as we carry our worlds with us in our guts, we carry the battle that is unique and synonymous to each one of us. A lesser known person (who I don't know) once said, "Stuff happens," which is a more shallow, ignorant, and unphilosophical way of saying the same thing, but digging deeper, this "stuff" is more than just "stuff." It's the down and the dirty, the grime of life, the finishing lasts, and the falling shorts. It's the fears and the unknowns, knocking mercilessly at your door. It's a battle field where I've fallen numerous times, and through the mortar smells, bloody heart, and crushed ego, reaches a hand gruff, yet holy, and strong, but gentle. Pulling my lifeless body from the ashes, He, with a mere touch, ignites my heart again with strength. Whose hand is this? It's Jesus Christ. OK, maybe it doesn't look like Jesus to you. Maybe it's not a James Caviezel, or a pasty, pale rendition of a narrow shouldered Jesus. Maybe it's a child's hand, or a stranger, a family member, a friend, or even (dare I say?) an enemy. It's a swooping down to save your day with a kind word, or even a friendly face.

"Be kind..."

That's right. It's not just you. It's the next man and/or woman as well. We face the same war. It's called being human, or spiritually, it's called our "flesh." It's not our flesh in the sense of the scar that you got when you were 12 and fell on a rock, but rather, it's the scar of knowing pain as well as pleasure, defeat as well as victory, and sorrow as well as joy.

"...for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."

Paul (the killer of Christian, turned Christian missionary) once proclaimed the battle when he said, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it...What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

There is salvation in the battle.

Click here to read more of what I mean.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."