Prayer

Clowning in Rome – Reflections on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer and Contemplation (By: Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Our cultures have pretty much put aside the values of solitude, celibacy, prayer and contemplation. As a result, we experience emptiness in our hearts and our relationships. Clowning in Rome will perhaps inspire us to risk to be touched by those in our homes and on our streets that we would rather put aside and forget. The homeless, belligerent, rejected, violent, lost, uncooperative, and vulnerable people are the prophets of today beckoning us to become clowns in the circus of life, where we foolishly squander our enormous energies of love and generosity. -Foreword (xviii)

… I [slowly] realized that in the great circus of [life], full of lion tamers and trapeze artists whose dazzling feats claim our attention, the real and true story was told by the clowns. Clowns are not in the centre of the events. They appear between the great acts, fumble and fall, and make us smile again after the tensions created by the heroes we came to admire. The clowns don’t have it together they do not succeed in what they try to do, they are awkward, out of balance, and left-handed, but…. they are on our side. We respond to them not with admiration but with sympathy , not with amazement but with understanding, not with tension but with a smile. Of the virtuosi we say, “How can they do it?” Of the clowns we say, “They are like us.” The clowns remind us with a tear and a smile that we share the same human weakness. -page 3.

The biblical text is clear, it teaches us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17). Many think that this is not achievable outside of taking monastic vows and living a cloistered lifestyle. As for me, I believe that there is tremendous value in connecting regularly with the Heart of God, connecting several times a day – a rhythm of regularly stopping everything that you are doing and just concentrating on God’s heart.

Praying at fixed times during the day was by-and-large rejected by the Protestant Reformation. A the time, anything that smelled of Rome was rejected, with it the monastic movement and its lifestyle of the Divine Office – fixed-hour prayer. In my opinion the baby was thrown out with the dirty bath-water.

However, praying at fixed times during the day was not essentially a Roman Catholic tradition, although the monastic tradition had championed it and modeled it for centuries. Fixed-hour prayer was a Jewish tradition long before it ever became a Christian one.

Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice – Psalm 55:17

In the early church the tradition of praying at fixed hours throughout the day was continued to the point where we read in Acts Chapter 3 that Peter and John performed a miracle on a lame man when they were on their way to the temple to prayer “at the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1).

I have begun an experiment with this notion of praying at fixed times during the day. I am exploring whether this lifestyle can be pursued outside of the monastic tradition – more specifically, whether this is doable whilst holding down a job, having a family, studying for a degree and also Pastoring a church.  If praying without ceasing is in the book it is something that is not only doable but necessary. This puts prayer at the centre of life. Prayer now becomes something that cannot be appended onto a busy schedule but rather something that must take the centre and have everything else revolve around it.

For this to become sustainable in the long term I need to add fuel to my prayer. For this I am taking a leaf out of the monastic tradition and using the bible as a prayer book to mull over the sacred text, musing, meditating and savouring every word and then praying this all back to God.

If you wish to look into this further, my message included below of 30th August 2009, “3 Things to Stoke the Fire of Revival” touches on this issue as well as the power of joy and the power of thankfulness.

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Things have been a bit of a blur for me lately with so much to do and so little time to do it in!  So, in the spirit of this time lapse that I find myself in (Just where did the past three weeks go?) I want to share a little on a visitor/speaker that we recently had at Living Waters Church.

Wytze Valkema is an awesome guy from Holland who leads the Daniel Prayer Network.  What does this guy do?  He prays.  That’s about it.  He prays…. day-in, day-out, 24/7.  He visited us during the second week in July and I can say that I am continuing to reap the benefits from his visit……big time.  Some of the things that he spoke on really resonated in my heart and continue to speak to me even now.  This guy is really anointed and speaks with an incredible authority that can only be obtained by spending time beholding the Lord in prayer.

How has he impacted me?  Although I find it hard to put into words how deeply he has spoken into my life, I guess that he has come through at a time when I needed a deep word from the Lord to change me.  Some things are hard to describe – they need to be tasted.  And so I have tasted part of the message that he has brought and it has left me hungry for more.

As a direct result of his visit we are starting to see some breakthroughs in how we do intercession, and prayer, and our weekly meetings in the prayer room have taken on a very interesting dynamic.  We are also now actively looking for premises that we could use as a prayer room – a prayer room without an agenda, where the only agenda is Psalms 27:4:

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.

One really practical consequence of this focus is that I realise that if I am going after “One thing” I cannot have a multitude of “things” on my plate.  As a result I am taking active steps to de-clutter my life right now.  This is HUGE!!!!  I am weaning myself off SO MANY to-do lists, tasks, projects, inputs, media, information sources, entertainment, etc. in order to free my time to live a lifestyle of One Thing.  That’s my big take-home benefit from Wytze’s visit.  I encourage you to do a similar personal audit to see how many “things” you need to deal with.

Hi friends, just received this prayer request for Bill Johnson.  Please pray – thanks!

———–

Friends and family,
This week we had a surprising health situation come up with my Dad, Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding. So I am writing to give you an update and a target for prayer.

Last week, Bob Jones called and was concerned about my dad’s health. As a result of Bob’s call, my dad went to the doctor to have some things checked on. He has had a hernia in the area of the abdomen that has caused some issues and discomfort. In checking out the hernia, the doctors felt a surgery was needed the next day to fix it and felt good about the recovery. In preparing for the surgery, they ran a routine blood test and had to cancel the surgery due to his being anemic. This set off another series of tests to determine what was going on. One of the tests involved checks for colon cancer, and it happened this morning. The results from this test show that his colon is in excellent health and he has no cancer. So, Yea GOD!! They are going to run some more tests to see why he is anemic.

I had a dream last night and in the dream, my neighbor was standing by his barbeque and there were some pretty big flames coming out of it. I was concerned that the flames would start a fire on my property. So I went and talked to my neighbor, and he insisted that everything was fine. So I went back to my property, and the flames got bigger, and the wind started to blow the flames onto my property. Now I was really concerned, and I told him that he needed to do something about his barbeque, but he insisted that everything was OK. Then, out of nowhere, all these catholic nuns showed up on my property with rakes and shovels and they were making a fire line of protection around my property.

Part of Bob Jones’ warning was that the prayers of the church would be crucial to victory. So we are asking that you continue to pray for perfect health and life in my dad’s body-that the hernia and anemia situations would quickly be healed and resolved. We are also asking that you pray from a position of strength and faith in the goodness of God for our family as a whole. Thank you.

We will keep you updated as we know that so many of you are partnered with us in the goodness of the Kingdom.

Blessings,

Eric Johnson
Bethel Church

I am continuously challenged by the diverse and competing demands on my time and attention. In order to address this, I find myself returning time and time again to the wisdom of the ancient ones that have gone before me. The monastic tradition in the Church deconstructed their lives in such a way that they primarily focused on two pillars: Prayer and Work. The “Ora et Labora“ motto has galvanized and motivated a movement that has withstood the test of time, and many believe is increasingly relevant in our overloaded and stressed culture.

It’s alright I am not turning into a monk. What I am doing, however, is gleaning from some of their wisdom and practices in order to enrich my own life and spirituality. I am applying “Ora et Labora” in my own life, albeit within the context of married and family life, career development, workplace ministry, and pastoring a small but very dynamic church.

Ora et labora.
The deconstruction of life into work and prayer is meaningful to me because I find that this is the balance that I try to achieve in everyday life at ground-level. You see, “Work-Life balance” does not work for me. The reason for this is that my work is life…….and I do not check my life at the door to my office and become a zombie-automaton from nine to five. I am pursuing the idea of “flow” where life becomes a continuous movement between working, spirituality, family, rest, fun and fellowship. This is the “Clock“, the practical hands-on issue of scheduling my time, making sure that demands for my attention do not crowd-out other “higher-order” priorities that form the guiding vision or “Compass” for my life.

The Celtic Knot
At another higher level (33,000ft level), a more strategic focus means that I must have three fundamental components in my life and ministry that will direct the way my “work and prayer” flow happen at the day-to-day runway level. This is best represented by a Celtic Knot (HT: Eric J. Swanson) where each of the three points symbolizes three words that are taking on a lot of meaning for me: Contemplation; Community and Cause. To put it in less “Churchy” language, think Believe, Belong, and Bless, or even Faith, Community and Mission. These are the higher-order priorities that are the compass for my journey in life.

Contemplation
involves deepening my relationship with God, turning inward to experience God, seeking His face in the Word and often simply enjoying His embrace, His love, relishing His promises over my life. This is the way that I “refuel” my soul, recharge my batteries and build my faith and passion. The busier I get, the more of a priority my inner life must take. I cannot afford not to pray and be near the presence of God.

Community involves belonging. Humans are creatures of community. We crave deep relationships and connections with other people. I find that many of my relationships with people, even within church, are at a very superficial level. I am making it a top priority in my life to deepen my heart connections with people who can pour out into me, and build me up and encourage me, holding me accountable my heart’s wildest dreams.

Cause involves our mission to bless a broken world. This involves getting to know people – developing relationships with people and understanding their hurts, disappointments, desires and hang-ups – then praying for them and introducing a supernatural encounter into their situation that will make them experience the love of God. This makes all the difference.

Life always pushes me to attend to the “Clock” first and then the “Compass”. I am learning to turn this the other way around and make sure that my guiding compass (Contemplation, Community and Cause) press upon the use of my time in order to ensure that my life actually counts for something.

How about you?
What are you doing today that will give direction and purpose to your daily activities?

Randy Bohlender of Stuff I Think fame has been at it again….he has messed with my head.  His message has really become a ‘mess’-age and now I am all undone…..all because he writes about the heart of an 11 year old….that actually lived out the gospel when he “stopped for the one”, and actually made a difference in the life of a homeless man.  Go over to this man’s blog and read ‘The Burrito Prayer Movement” where Randy marries the concepts of going for a deeper life with God, with social activism:

As long as I can remember, there’s been a disconnect between doing and praying. Churches had a tendency to lean hard one way or the other – activism or intercession. In connecting with a body of believers, you chose between addressing social ills or committing to going deep with God. It never occurred to us that addressing social ills might mean going deep with God or vice versa. We didn’t consider that to try to do one while ignoring the other was to be far less than Jesus told us to be.

WOW….a convicting read people….you have been warned.  Truly, small acts, done with great love, can change are changing,  the world.

At the 24/7 prayer room tonight, the urgency of seeking His face was pressed upon my heart. It is in seeking His face, for the sake of just seeking Him, that the doorway for increased favour upon our lives is opened, and Divine provision for every need of our lives is given abundantly.

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It is 5:00am as I write this. I am with a group of pastors that have joined together for an all-night prayer vigil at the local Methodist church in the run-up for our 40 days of regional 24/7 prayer in October. Promises are being released, communities are being blessed, and we are pressing-in for more of the Lord.

We have kicked off the night by viewing George Otis Jnr’s “Transformations I” video – awesome stuff. That has really got us fired up for the rest of the night! Man that video is awesome! There is a shift that needs to take place from seeing yourself as a pastor of a church to seeing yourself as a steward of a city for the Lord. We are called to pastor cities, regions and nations. It is time to crawl back out from under the floorboards and regain the spiritual ownership of the land.

Photos will be posted soon.

Back to the payer room – over and out.

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