GIVE THANKS:: WE ARE FORTUNATE ONES

Let us celebrate for a day some of the GOOD of our history. There is such value in blessing and celebrating the good, and coming in the opposite spirit to all the darkness and destruction of our past and present.

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34 ESV)

When I read these words, I know they are true in my heart. I need to be sure my eyes are also seeing beauty and good and justice throughout my day or my heart and body grows sick. I often have to actively seek it out and be intentional to celebrate it. When I see the kindness of a father’s tenderness towards his daughter, when I see a stranger help a mother carry a stroller up the subway stairs, when families take in children that aren’t their own and love them as if they are. Sometimes, I simply want to sit and stare at flowers to get any bit of beauty in that I can.

Today, I am humbled, because truly we are the fortunate ones. Of all the founding colonies, Plymouth is the template for Thanksgiving. Colonies varied in their founding values- some established for strategic trade routes, some seeking gold and wealth, some tobacco cash crops-- as with Jamestown, whose governor was so oppressive in his rule that when the chaplain requested just an hour on Sunday to nourish their souls he was quoted "damn their souls, plant tobacco!" But these are NOT colonies in which our celebration originates-- it is Plymouth which was marked by intercultural cooperation that lead to abundance and celebration. 

I was reading a bit of Plymouth history, and I am in awe of #Squanto. He was twice a slave. First taken back to Europe after being captured by a sea captain, only to later return to his homeland with explorers and find his entire village wiped out by disease. He was then made a slave by a tribe of his own nation. As part of the peace treaty between the settlers and the Massasoit people, Squanto taught the settlers to grow and gather food, and fish. I can’t fathom the thoughts of Squanto’s heart. If he willing to help or if he was obligated, if the experience was healing or hurtful to farm and gather on the same land that all his now deceased relatives once inhabited. But I do know, they chose to break bread together in celebration of a successful harvest, and of the peace between two people groups. Of all the suffering, strife, conflict and selfishness— we can choose to celebrate what is GOOD. 

The Scum, and the Dregs

The scum, and the Dregs

In recent weeks, my heart has been stirred to learn how to pray more strategic. Not just my own wishes or hopes, but to pray the very heart of God on the matter. While I didn’t feel like a book that laid out some step by step process or procedure was what I was looking for, I opened my browser to see what was out there. I came upon a page of quotes by Lilias Trotter that I had discovered last year. (I have a bad habit of leaving a page open as a way to "save" it on my phone-- and some for a year or more at a time!!) Here is what she says:

“How all the tenor of helplessness and failure... is only meant to make way for the prayer-life of Christ in us, and in fellowship with Him in it which will "make all things new" - no longer a weary wrestling to get access and answers, but catching His thought and swiftly asking alongside in His Name - His the upper tone, ours the undertone so to fill in the harmony.

Praying down rather than praying up - that is the summing up... that the velocity and power of anything that comes down, gains in a ratio of high proportion with the height from which it drops: Even from an aeroplane, a pencil falling will take on the force of a bullet. What might not our prayer power be if it comes down from the throne of the Priest. “Prayer is the true and lasting will of the soul united and fastened into the will of our Lord by the sweet inward work of the Holy Ghost”— so it was defined by Mother Julian of Norwich 400 years ago (31 July, 1913)”  (Emphasis mine)

Yes!! Praying down rather than praying up. I found that Lilias wrote these words of reflection after listening to Samuel Zwemer at the International Sunday School Convention in Zurich in 1913. A little more digging, I unearthed a wonderful little booklet he wrote simply titled, “Prayer.”

This thirty page booklet packs a lot of potency. He writes about taking hold of God with our emotions. He says this:

“The psychology of prayer also includes taking hold of God with our emotions, our passions and our deepest feelings. We find them all in the prayers of David- awe, fear, sor­row, joy, love, hatred, jealousy, passion. All these emotions exercised in the right way find their place in secret prayer. Here they need not be stifled. The only cure for hypocrisy is to lay hold of the source of all sincerity-secret prayers. This is what David meant when he said, "Pour out your heart before Him." The scum, and the dregs. Paul makes reference in his Epistles once and again to his tears. It is worth while to look up the references.” (Emphasis mine)

Wow. Yes! I immediately thought of the note I found a little over a year ago that my Nana had sent to me when I was in a very dark and hard place, and dearly in need of “pouring my heart out” -- the scum, and the dregs.



:::::: from October 12, 2018 :::::::

Making some room in the closet this morning to put the air conditioner away, I found a plastic bin with old pictures. I was having a great time reminiscing, when this little card fell out of the mix of photos. From 2002 when I had to dropout of college the second time to go back into treatment for an eating disorder. Those years were so dark I hardly remember reading these notes from my Nana. She was a prayer warrior and a woman of deep faith. She never got to see my healing, but she never doubted. I’m not sure exactly how heaven works, but I believe she is in my cloud of witness; those of faith that have gone before me and who’s lives still bear fruit in my own life. And here, 16 years later these words still hold comfort as I feel afresh the sting of not having a degree in a time of unemployment. Some days I get weary of feeling like trauma has a way sinking it’s tentacles into so many aspects of life. What wisdom POUR OUT YOUR HEART— trauma kept in festers and worsens. When we empty our hearts to God, we have room to receive the joy.

Saturday--

Daddy just brought your address. He came to pick up Mark

So-- I want to get this to you today. 

I am sending you many prayers and much love!

I know God will never leave you or forsake you.

And He will get you through this time Victoriously!

This too shall pass Katie

you'll be able to comfort others with the comfort

He's given you.

We all love you so much and are rooting for you.

Hugs + much love

Nana

Monday Sept 2--

Dearest Katie, 

Thinking of you much and praying for you much!

God is faithful and will bring you through this!

I read this scripture this morning. Ps 62:8

"Trust in Him at all times, pour your heart before Him.

God is a refuge for us.

Weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning

There's much joy coming Katie

Just take Jesus' hand-- He will walk you through!

Hugs and much love

Nana