Telling Stories

In Tajikistan there is an ancient epic story that is told only by specially trained story tellers. Villagers hire these people to come and tell the story in the long winter evenings. They gather in homes where they can share warmth and food, and they listen, fascinated, as the epic unwinds. For a while they forget their hardships and the cold and are instead caught up in a world that existed long ago. This story reminds them of their heritage and of who they are as a people.

Someone has said that every time the Gospel is shared, it should begin with the phrase, "Let me tell you a story." That story might be the personal account of what the Gospel has meant to the storyteller, or it might be a story about someone in the Bible or maybe it's a story that Jesus Himself told. Jesus certainly knew and used the power of story telling.

You and I have countless stories to tell. Yesterday my friend Michele told a story to someone she met and it ended with that person taking the story book (Michele's old Bible) away with her. Now we are praying that she will open and read the book for herself.

In John 4, the woman Jesus met at the well persuaded a whole town to come and meet Him simply by telling her story. In the end they had their own personal stories to tell about their encounters with Jesus and they told her that her story had brought them to that point.

"They said to the woman,

'We no longer believe just because of what you said;

now we have heard for ourselves and

we know that this man really is

the Savior of the world.'"

John 4:42

The beauty of Jesus's stories is that He always drew from the moment and incorporated what was going on around Him to catch people's attention. He used nature and business and human relationships. Everyone of us can find a story to tell. Even if we aren't bringing the Gospel into it, it's great fun to tell each other stories. I think that is why Jesus did it...and I think that is why we might try it....just for fun.

#5 Terce

The Hour of Terce comes around a couple of hours after Prime. It is a pause in the work of the morning, and its purpose is to ask for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We pray that our work will be a blessing to others and to God.

Many of us have heard of the concept that we should look to see where God is at work and join Him in what He is already doing. Terce is the moment that we do that. We stop, look and listen to Him, to see if we are indeed being led by His Spirit in what we are doing. Jesus did this constantly.

Jesus said to them,"My Father is always at His work

to this very day, and I, too, am working."

Jesus gave them this answer: " I tell you the truth,

the Son can do nothing by Himself;

He can do only what He sees the Father doing,

because whatever the Father does

the Son also does".

John 5:17 & 19

Prime is usually when I am most focused and energetic. Once I get going on the day and I am feeling productive and successful I may not think of stopping to pray. I want to keep up my momentum and get as much done as possible. When Terce comes, it is a reminder to me that my work is not my own. My work is an offering to God and it is meant to be a blessing to others in my life. This pause to pray helps keep me from becoming self-serving and self-centered as I progress through the day.

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By the time Terce rolls around I may be encountering challenges in my relationships with people. I have been out of my cozy quiet time space for a while and may now be dealing with the irritation, disappointment or tension that comes from with working with others. Work itself may be creating negative emotions.

At Terce, I bring all of that to prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom. I need His perspective to cope with the challenges I am facing. It is also a great time to pray for the ways of escape from the temptations that are cropping up.

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I know this is tough advice, but one of the best ways to deal with difficult people is to pray for blessing in their lives. The temptation is to curse them, but the work of God is to bless them. It may be challenging to think of a blessing for a person who is provoking the heck out of me, but I can always find something--with the help of the Holy Spirit. It turns my own attitude around to pray for blessing in the life of that person and I feel better for it.

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One of the promises of God is that there is rest for His people. At Terce I lay my work (and my weapons) aside for a few minutes and return to the joy of His friendship. I love the fact that He is beside me--within me!--and is ready to restore the quietness and joy I had at Lauds.

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The Hours build upon each other throughout the day. As I leave Lauds, I look forward to Prime and then to Terce. These times of prayer are small oases in the journey through my tasks, relationships and responsibilities.

Terce: Stop, Look,

Pray for the Holy Spirit's help in my work &

Pray blessing into the lives of others, then

Go---back to work.

Next stop, Sext. May we all be refreshed in prayer today.

Temptations

Each day I start out toward a day of work and prayer, full of great intentions, and then discover that tempations lie in wait around every corner.

I have weaknesses and I fall into sin. There are temptation trip wires all around me. Maybe something provokes me to anger or frustration and I think evil thoughts or say evil things. Or I see something I want and decide to go for it, even though I had decided not to do that anymore. I excuse myself and promise to do better tomorrow.

That is where this picture of a cake comes in...this lovely, innocent cake (which is inscribed "A Gift of Love from Heaven Above") represents one of my temptations.

Years ago I made a decision that I would never pour myself a glass of wine when I am alone, nor would I ever drink to excess with others. I don't even think about doing these things, but eating sweets is a temptation to sin that I have struggled with. (It is only by God's grace that I haven't gotten to be 100 lbs. overweight by now since I have spent so much time alone in the kitchen over the years! )

Yesterday I was looking at a brownie on the kitchen counter while I was talking on the phone with a friend who struggles with overeating. I had planned to have that fat, chocolately brownie later with my afternoon tea. My friend, who is fighting and winning her battle with overweight, was asking for prayer in the face of ongoing temptations in her own kitchen.

Wow, I thought, I am packing around in my own body a lot of evidence that I have been giving in to food temptations for a long time. I thought about my past decisions about avoiding drinking....and then I decided that I had better apply that same discipline to goodies in my kitchen. I decided that I will not eat sweets when I am alone.

The earth did not shake when I made that decision, but a door to temptation closed for the day. It is so much easier to defeat temptation if the conversation is over before it begins. Will I have just one brownie today? Nope, no brownies while I am alone.

Maybe I will share one with a friend or my husband later. Of course, my friend or husband may decline the brownie and then I will be reminded that I don't need it either. The fact that I am facing temptation in the company of others can help me stop before I give in.

I am going to try using this response to other temptations that come my way. I don't think that I am supposed to be in running battles all day long with temptations. God has given me power to deal with them and move on:

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"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,

he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

I Corinthians 10:13

Jesus also encouraged us to pray

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

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Maybe the best way to escape from temptation is to pray for strength, then turn and walk away from it. No temptation is stronger than the power and deliverance of God that is ours through prayer.

Pray ---turn---pray---walk away---

I will call a friend to pray with me if I need extra strength.

#4 Prime

In Benedictine communities, Prime, is when work assignments are passed out and tools are collected for use. This is the time of commitment to the tasks that lie ahead for the day. They pray together for the energy and ability to do their work well. They want to serve with all their hearts, as doing their work for the Lord. They also remember their connection to each other in this Hour.

Monks often work alone, but they never forget their community while they work. All day long they will be coming across the evidence of the work of others in the community--their work intertwines with that of others. They give thanks for that and they remember to pray for their fellow monks when they see the products of their labors.

Prime is an important Hour of prayer for me. I am not naturally an organized person and I have to work hard at planning and implementing my task lists. As much as I would love to carry lists around in my head all day long and work methodically at accomplishing tasks, my mind is a wonderland of ideas and inspirations and I am very easily distracted. I have to set aside time to look at what must be done and then write it down in order to do it.

In "Music of Silence" the authors suggest that we head into the work day with a plan to

Stop

Look

& Go

They liken this to a conductor about to lead an orchestra into a great symphony. He raises the baton and there is a silent pause:

Stop

He and the orchestra consider the music before them:

Look

He brings the baton down and they play the first notes:

Go!

This is a method by which I can I stay on track in my work all day long. My first "stop" is Prime. I "look" prayerfully at the work I must do and then I prayerfully "go" into the day. As I work, I try to remember to "stop, look and go" again and again. This helps me stay on track.

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Praying Prime also helps me view my work as a sacred act, an offering of my skills and abilities to the Lord all day long. He is very present as I do whatever I have to do that day and I want to please Him.

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare

before the eyes of him to whom

we must give an account." Hebrews 4:13

With the Lord as my Ultimate Supervisor, I am eager to do the right things. Prime helps me start out connected and communicating with Him.

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There are two other thoughts I want to add:

1. Remembering that my work is intertwined with that of others all day long helps me have more respect for them. All of us enter into a world of work already completed by others as soon as we get up in the morning. What we eat is brought to us by others doing their jobs, the safety we enjoyed through the night and even the gas we put into our vehicles are there because someone did his or her job. There are countless ways in which our lives are blessed by others who do their work well. We can be thankful for these people and we can pray for them.

2. Stopping work briefly when it is time to pray again is a good reminder that my work is subject to God and not to become an idol in my life. Work is not the basis of my identity. My identity is in my relationship with the Lord and stopping to acknowledge Him in prayer keeps me focused on that.

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Next, I will share with you about Terce.

Prayer Lists

A few days ago I mentioned that I don't use prayer lists in my quiet time, but that doesn't mean I don't think they are a good idea. I know people who keep prayer lists for years and they are able to look at them and see how God has answered. These are a great encouragement and a wonderful record of what God has done.

If you are a list keeper, please enjoy that experience! My prayers are recorded pretty extensively in my daily journal writings and I often review them to remember what the Lord has done for me and the people I pray for.

God Himself has kept lists to remember people by--just look in Chronicles! God doesn't actually need a list to remember people, but the fact that He put them into His everlasting Word tells us something.

A prayer list might be one of the best ways to make sure you keep your commitments to pray.

Time Out to Meet an Angel

Thursday morning Women Ministries at our church thanked me for my service as an elder the past three years by presenting me with this lovely carved angel. I love how her face is perpetually turned toward Heaven. She is a quiet reminder of the attitude of prayer throughout the day. Blessings!

#3 Lauds

Lauds comes at the dawning of the new day. I have my morning quiet time beside a window that faces east in our living room, so I often see the light of the dawn as it stretches across the sky. (Yes, I am naturally a morning person).

Many times I feel I am joining a "dawn chorus" of other believers who have already had their quiet times when I get up to meet the Lord. Here on the western edge of the west coast, we see the rising sun after it has traveled over the rest of the country. There are not a whole lot of other people still waiting for sunrise after we see it here in California. There are the Pacific islands, then the International Dateline and the globe spins slowly into another new day, but, I digress....

I pray at dawn because I am grateful for being delivered by God safely out of the night into the light of a new day. The mood of Lauds is one of gratitude and joy. I may have wrestled with my thoughts and struggled with my fears during Vigils, but now all things begin anew. God heard my prayers in the dark of night and now He is present when I wake.

Lauds is the time to let my optimism rise, to believe that God has many new opportunities waiting for me. This is the time to feed my soul on scripture. It is the time I lay out the plans for the day and ask for His guidance and help. I take time to ask Him whether all my busyness is really good and necessary and perhaps to consider paring down some of the demands upon my time that are not really being fruitful.

I often pray for people in this early morning hour. I don't keep a list for this purpose, but I pray as people come to mind. I know that I will be praying for people all day long anyway, and I trust the Lord to remind me about them as needed, so I don't try to cover everyone first thing in the morning.

I also pray using the thoughts and words I read in my Bible that morning. I believe that the Lord wants to speak to me from His Word and I want to respond according to what He is saying. After all, it is only polite to go with the conversation He initiates.

By the way, it's good to have a Bible reading plan in mind at Lauds. It may be as simple as reading through the Bible one book at a time, or it may be part of a Bible study you are currently doing, but have something ready. It slows things down to be fumbling around with your Bible so early in the day.

I used to think that my quiet times needed to be my spiritual meal for the day, but now I know that I will soon be "eating" again when the next Hour for prayer rolls around. Lauds helps me get ready to receive the gift of the coming day. I relax in the Lord's presence and look forward to what we will be doing together. I know that He will lead me since His call to "Follow Me" is for all of His disciples...and that includes me!

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Lauds...light, gratitude, joy and optimism!

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Next we will look at Prime. Have a great day!