Tag Archives: Prayer

Soul & Solace: Confessions

Creativity/Spirituality, , , , , ,

Some Austinites delight in outdoor summer exercise. Well-earned sweat glistens on their tanned and toned bodies and anoints their beatific smiles. I confess, my summer walks feel like toiling up Mount Doom to cast the ring of power into the sweltering flames that forged it.

Some people welcome chores as a time to pray for those the task benefits: for the partner/spouse whose laundry they’re doing, for the child whose room they’re dusting. I confess that even the thought of chores makes me cranky. And my chief and fervent chore prayer is that it will be DONE.

There are those whose faith life is joyful, comforting, unquestioning. I confess that mine is more adolescent and angsty. I stomp around, troubled by torments both personal and global, wondering why God doesn’t DO SOMETHING and what is taking SO LONG?

Why am I sharing these personal vignettes? Mainly because, if someone is going through an adolescent faith phase, I hope they’ll feel a bit less alone and bit more encouraged. Also, because whether or not a reader relates to my angst just now, they may do someday, or someone they love may as well. And last, because, should a practice feel like drudgery or delight, it’s motives and actions that form our faith.

So. Whether we relish chores or not, we do them to provide a clean, welcoming space for those who dwell in or visit our home. We exercise, whether it’s a delight of a discipline, to give our body its best chance for a healthy, abundant life. We keep praying, reading Scripture, worshiping, and living the tenets of our faith because, no matter how confused and frustrated we are, God is the deepest love and allegiance of our lives.

We don’t have to pretend. Our lives, our faith can be as real and as individual as we are.

As we move into May and spring cleaning, and look toward summer and sweltering temps, we can do so with a faith that allows us to question, to anguish, and to grow.

How do you feel about Texas heat and outdoor exercise? About chores? About a lived faith? Share your thoughts at contact@aspaciousplace.com.

Soul & Solace: Reframing Faith

Creativity/Spirituality, , , , , , , , , ,

I don’t know about you, but I get worn down praying. I’m maxed out on prayers for pandemic relief, for the people (especially women and children) of Afghanistan, for equal voting rights for all citizens, for Ukraine to be free from violent assault. Add to that a lengthy list of personal requests
 
            …followed by the three blinking dots of a God text message.
 
I’m worn with waiting and with continued, determined hoping. We’ve entered the Christian Lenten season: a time of introspection and asceticism in hopes of deepening our relationship with God. This season, I’m struck by the number of Scriptures begging God to remember, to help. I think we need to beg God to save the people of Ukraine, to help us vote in leaders who serve the public good rather than themselves, to empower those fighting in word and action for the God values of justice, equality, freedom, and love.
 
I once read a thinker who suggested the only purpose of prayer was to align our minds with decisions God already made. Okay, sometimes, yes. To that, I also offer the example of Abraham praying for Sodom, Moses praying for the Israelites, and the psalmists turning all their creative powers to snag God’s attention and beg for help.
 
We may not have considered prayer, or God, in this way. I think it’s worth a look, even if it discomforts. Lent is an uncomfortable season, because faith grows when challenged. And we sorely need a growing faith now.
 
Join us at A Spacious Place in praying that God, by whatever name you choose, attend to the pain and violence in the world, and then to act as only God can. We may feel maxed out, but let’s keep on trying. It’s what we can do in a world of hurt.
 
What are your beliefs on prayer, on God, on faith? We would love to hear from you. Share your Soul & Solace thoughts with us at contact@aspaciousplace.com

January 2013 Soul and Solace

Creativity/Spirituality, , , , , , ,

God Magic

Into a season of expectancy and joy intruded an act of devastating violence. What can we, small and distant as we are, do for the parents, the brothers, the sisters, the friends and fellow teachers, the bewildered student survivors of Sandy Hook Elementary?

A Spacious Place takes violence and its consequences seriously. What happened in Connecticut will forever change lives in that community, but also, the very fabric of the universe. We also believe creativity and love bear a deeper, more powerful magic than violence. So we invite you to join us in taking these people into our hearts and placing them in God’s hands (to paraphrase of Madeleine L’Engle’s definition of prayer).

Our Ramah Faith site was created in response to an event which has come to be called the Slaughter of the Innocents (Matthew 2:1-18). Leading up to the anniversary of the nativity celebration, we witnessed the aftermath of a second Slaughter of Innocents.

Our invitation? Begin the new year by putting your powerful magic to work. Read the news stories of those who died—including those who died seeking to shield children—and those who mourn them, then create a prayer—be it a word, a sentence, a poem, a drawing, a photo, or whatever else your faith and your faith tradition prompts you to offer. Email us your prayer (contact@aspaciousplace.com) to post on the Ramah Faith site (www.ramahfaith.com) alongside other responders, thus forming a potent circle of God magic.

They have asked for prayer; let us answer. While our prayers will not minimize or erase what has happened, they will flood a devastated community with love. And that is a needful thing, for, in the end, love alone has muscle enough to bear us up through tragedy.