Dialogue with God...

Tomorrow evening I head up to Jackson's Point to gather with Divisional Youth Secretaries from across the territory. We have planned, organized, and prayed.

No need to worry. But I do pray that we will share from our hearts with each other, with God. I pray that we would listen to each other, and to God.

Impacting the next generation is huge. Recent research from Fuller indicates that if things don't change, only 3% of church attending high-school students, will be attending church in four years, after their university years.

What needs to change? The church, the world, ourselves - it's a big question, I know, but we need to ask it. It's a good question.

I guess that's why I'm somewhat anxious about next week. It's serious business. Pray for us, we need your prayers.

The paper today said that most Canadians are concerned with the deepening divide between rich and poor in Canada - it speaks of moral failure.

Reminds me of Harry Emerson Fosdick's words:

Cure thy children's warring madness,
Bend our pride to thy control;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
Rich in goods and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss thy Kingdom' goal.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour.

Your prayers are appreciated.

Spiritual Friendship - A Prayer

O Father, may we know in our heart and our head that we are loved by you, that we are known and belong to you, that you rejoice in our soul. All of us bear the dust of earthly striving. We share the stress of secret fear, needing to achieve, needing to count, needing to be accepted. All our souls bear wounds, from all but thee, far-hidden.

Thank you for our brother, and sympathetic high priest, the Lord Jesus. Thank you that we may we approach your holy throne to find your provision of grace and mercy - for every need, for every person, at any time.

We love you and need you. Open our eyes and hearts to see fellow pilgrims with whom we share our humanity, our sin, your image, and with whom we may share our joys, challenges and journey in holiness.

I confess Lord that while I am growing more and more independent of the praise of others, I relish seeing you and hearing from you through people. I pray that your Spirit would continue to guide into truth, giving freedom to take risks in friendships, anointing and nourishing them, enriching my friendship with others so that we might bring glory to you.

We need each other.

Revealing Feeling is Healing

How are we healed of our wounding memories? We are healed first of all by letting them be available, by leading them out of the corner of forgetfulness and by remembering them as a part of our life stories. What is forgotten is unavailable, and what is unavailable cannot be healed. Max Scheler shows how memory liberates us from the determining power of forgotten painful events. “Remembering,” he says, “is the beginning of freedom from the covert power of the remembered thing or occurrence.”

If ministers are reminders, their first task is to offer the space in which the wounding memories of the past can be reached and brought back into the light without fear. When the soil is not ploughed, the rain cannot reach the seeds; when the leaves are not raked away, the sun cannot nurture the hidden plants. So also, when out memories remain covered with fear, anxiety or suspicion, the Word of God cannot bear fruit.

God grant us all courage to take the high road of health and truth and hope.

The Blessing of Morning Prayer

The entire day receives order and discipline when it acquires unity. This unity must be sought and found in morning prayer. It is confirmed in work. The morning prayer determines the day.
Squandered time of which we are ashamed, temptations to which we succumb, weakness and lack of courage in work, disorganization and lack of discipline in our thoughts and in our conversation with other men, all have their own origin most often in the neglect of morning prayer.

Order and distribution of our time become more firm where they originate in prayer. Temptations which accompany the working day will be conquered on the basis of the morning breakthrough to God. Decisions, demanded by work, become easier and simpler where they are made not in the fear of men but only in the sight of God. “Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men” (Colossians 3:23). Even mechanical work is done in a more patient way if it arises from the recognition of God and his command. The powers to work take hold, therefore, at the place where we have prayed to God. He wants to give us today the power which we need for our work.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, pp 64-65

We've all felt guilty about failing at our devotional time, we all have been told we need to do this. Bottom line - spending quality time with and before God, who knows us better than anyone and who wishes the best for us - is key. So if we don't always get it right, we don't quit, we just go back to the refrigerator/cupboard/storehouse again. He's happy when we do.