Prayer

Advent Lessons on Hope

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It’s been a while, dear readers. 2025 has been a challenging year and I’ve come around full circle to Advent season once again. Having meditated on Luke 1:5-25,57-66 with Elizabeth and Zechariah as my instructors, here are some lessons I’m learning about hope:

Hope sees your dedication.
Hope shows up in your disappointment.
Hope speaks God’s declaration concerning your life.
Hope celebrates your destiny even before it’s clear to you.

I reflect on this some more at Substack where I recently launched a newsletter. Please join me there at: https://flowtofruitful.substack.com/.

The Wait: Peace that Protects

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What is peace like?
Perhaps peace…
…looks like green pastures and still waters.
…feels like breeze and sun that caresses just right.
…sounds like…

Alas, the Valley of the Shadow of Death is inevitable.  
When Chaos and Conflict arrive, where can Peace be found? 
Philippians 4:7 speaks of Peace that transcends all understanding, guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
This Peace of God is not merely serene. This Peace protects.
It doesn’t always protect us from circumstances and hard times.  Life still be lifing. 
Yet in my sanctified imagination, I see Peace on guard within my soul.  

Here are some thoughts on practicing the presence of Peace during Advent.

Your Call: How does Peace speak to you in this season?  How can you practice its presence?

The Wait: Wrestling with the Essence of Time

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I can appear calm, yet I know that I can be impatient.   I’m the one that scouts out what looks like the shorter line in the store, only to be dismayed when another line moves faster.  That kind of wait can be a minor annoyance, but some waits are longer than others. Some waits erode hope.  Some waits shed tears.   

I haven’t worn a watch in a while.  Yet my mindset is often attached to a clock ticking in my head. Chronological time is a tool that helps us to function and organize our days.  Yet our eternal God reserves the right to transcend it. If you have experienced some frustration with waiting, I wonder what comes to mind for you when you watch this video. Sit with it for a few minutes.

If you would like to see more about how the above video relates to the Advent season, watch this Invitation to Hope.

Your Call: Reflect on two Greek words for time, which are 1) chronos, which speaks to chronological time, and 2)  kairos, which speaks to an appointed time or a due season.  How can this understanding prepare you for your wrestling match with time?

Press On: Navigating the Buttons of Life

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Right now, which of these buttons speaks to you the most? Are you inclined to press previous, play, pause, stop, or next?

I tend to hover over the “next” button.  The temptation there for me is ruminating about what’s next to the point where I forget to be present, which can lead to escapism or fear.  I am realizing that I can reframe that “next” button as I trust God with my future. I can press “previous” and express gratitude for how God has been faithful in the past. I can press “pause” and take a deep breath, reminding myself that the Holy Spirit in within and around me. I can cultivate a sense of expectancy while not imposing my expectations or obsessing over exact outcomes. I can sing along with the hymnwriter who proclaims, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

Your Call: Reflect on the button that stands out the most and how that speaks to this season of your life.  (Sisters in Christ, I invite you to subscribe to my Flow to Fruitful newsletter and receive a free mini-workbook that goes a little deeper with this. For more information, click: bit.ly/flowtofruitful).

Resurrection Living: A prayer during this pandemic

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It was about a year ago when I began to reflect upon what it looks like to live out the resurrection beyond Easter Sunday.  Never would I have imagined that the year 2020 would bring a pandemic with it. How do we speak life into what feels like an abyss?  The only place for me to begin is prayer, whatever that may look or sound like at any given time.   My prayers have consisted of grief and gratitude, of sobs and psalms, of heartache and hope, and of indignation and intercession. In the midst of this, I sensed the need to write the following prayer so that I can return to it as I navigate this journey.

Very Present Help in Trouble,

I pray for our scientists to get the necessary knowledge, understanding and resources for the ethical, expeditious development of a safe and effective treatment and vaccine.

I pray for divine covering and adequate protective gear for health care staff and for all other front-line essential workers putting their lives on the line and for all others to respect the guidelines for social distancing and sheltering in place. 

I pray for a sufficient supply of hospital beds and medical equipment for those suffering and in critical condition from the virus. I pray against the insidious nature of this disease that seeks to snatch the very breath that You gave us at birth.

I pray for integrity, wisdom and compassion for leaders who influence and impact others by their words, deeds and decisions.   I pray against a mindset of greed and selfishness that puts money and privilege above the precious lives of those You created in Your image.

I pray for families, friends and communities trying to figure out how to live and love and for those who struggle to make a living.  I pray against corrupt systems that would continue to ignore or exploit those on the margins.

I pray for educators and students as they navigate how to teach and learn in these challenging circumstances.  I pray for 2020 graduates who grieve as they miss out on  anticipated celebrations.

I pray for increased awareness of Your presence and protection for the self quarantined who feel isolated, depressed, trapped, anxious, fearful, in despair, on the verge of relapse or powerless and those being mistreated or abused in any way. 

I pray for Your comfort for those who mourn the dead and healing for those who  fight to live.  For these, I pray for an extra measure of Your supernatural strength.

I pray that we find a place of rest, wellness and purpose in the midst of this trying time.

I pray all these things in the matchless and mighty name of Jesus. 

Amen and so be it.

Your Call: What is prayer like for you during this pandemic?

Resurrection Living: Prayers from the Edge

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Imagine sitting around a table with the biblical prophets Elijah and Habakkuk, along with Ida B. Wells, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What would you ask them? One of my questions would be, “How do you handle discouragement?” I don’t know exactly what they would have said, but I believe that some version of a “prayer closet” would be mentioned in every response.  

Elijah is running for his life. Exhausted, he ends up scrunched down under a broom tree in the wilderness, desperate to disappear. In his torment, he manages to consume the food and drink offered, and makes his way to the mountain of God.  He ends up in a cave, but it’s still in the mountain of God, a place where he repeatedly reminds God of his faithfulness to his prophetic call. In essence, he is saying to God, “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this…”

The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.  There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
1 Kings 19:7-10

Habakkuk is clear that he has a complaint. He sees the violence around him. He doesn’t get to view the mayhem from a distant place but is up close as he bears witness to the idolatry and injustice surrounding him and cries out to God,  “Why are you doing nothing about this?” Yet, the prophet’s plan is to go to his post and wait for God’s answer.

“I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.” Habakkuk 2:1

Ida B. Wells rides a train from Memphis for a teaching assignment. The conductor insists that she move from the “ladies car” to the “smoking car.” True to form, she refuses to move and the conductor resorts to forcibly removing her.  Upon returning to Memphis, she files a lawsuit against the railroad and wins the case. Unfortunately, the decision is reversed by the state’s Supreme Court. An entry in her diary, dated April 11, 1887, expresses her disappointment.

“O God, is there no redress, no peace, no justice in this land for us? Thou hast always fought the battles of the weak & oppressed. Come to my aid at this moment & teach me what to do, for I am sorely, bitterly disappointed. Show us the way, even as Thou led the children of Israel out of bondage into the promised land.”  From The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells, edited by Miriam Decosta-Willis 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. receives yet another menacing phone call at his home.  The caller spews racist hatred and threatens to hurt his family. He becomes so overwhelmed that he can’t sleep, so he gets up, goes to the kitchen and makes some coffee. Then he prays:

“Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right; I think the cause that we represent is right.  But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now; I’m faltering; I’m losing my courage. And I can’t let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak.”   Martin Luther King Jr from his sermon, “Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool”,  August 27, 1967

Sometimes, we must steal away to a secret place.  At that place, we encounter the divine presence and power we need for resurrection of courage and commitment.

Elijah hid in the mountain. God told him about the 7000 reinforcements he knew not of, and sent him to his next assignment

Habakkuk waited at his watchpost. God told him to write the vision of justice that would come and wait for it.

Ida. B. Wells wrote in her diary.  God must have answered since she went on to expose the wickedness of lynching in America

Dr. King sat at his coffee table. God told him: “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, stand up for truth.  And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world.”

How do we press on in the midst of our frustrations and fears?  In the same sermon I referred to earlier, Dr. King stated that our enslaved ancestors took another prophet’s “question mark and straightened it into an exclamation point.” How? They clung to the courage that oppressive forces tried to snatch.  How? They continued to remind themselves of one ultimate truth passed down from generation to generation:
God is with us.  

Your Call: Do you have a special place of prayer where you meet God in times of turmoil?  Where is your watchpost?

Advent 3: Dreaming While Woke

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When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,  and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Psalm 126 reminds me why worship is so important. In these nightmarish times, we can’t afford to stop dreaming of the goodness that is possible. Worship helps get us there by redirecting our focus toward God, not for escapism, but for the joy and power that comes with a stronger connection to God.

As we stay woke to the reality that is life today, hope must be one of our companions if we are to stay well. Worship gives us space to remember who God is and what God has already done so that we dare to envision a world where love, peace and justice reign.

In painting a picture of an empty riverbed in the desert region of the Negev, this psalm lifts up prayers for reversal and restoration, from dryness to drenching, from sowing in tears to reaping with joy.  Can you relate to this shift in your own life?

Worshipping in community gives us an opportunity to rejoice in anticipation of better times as we ask each other, “Can’t you feel a brand new day?!”  The song that poses this question is from the soundtrack of The Wiz.  It is not a traditional worship song but it speaks to our need to celebrate freedom at its fullest because “it’s like a different way of living now…”

Amazing things can happen when worship links up with work by way of the Spirit of God.  Isaiah 61 speaks of One anointed to be a vessel of reversal, bringing good news to the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, and proclaiming liberty to the captives.  It speaks of a people who have been planted by God for a ministry of restoration, building up and repairing the ruins around them. Will you accept God’s invitation to participate in the divine restoration to come?

Your Call: Watch the videos above; what calls out to you in them?  If you painted a picture of a “different way of living” for the world to see, what would it look like and what small step can you take to move in that direction?   What are you being anointed to do in God’s process of restoration?

Advent 2: Preparing the Path

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A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,  make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  Isaiah 40:3 (NRSV)

 A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades,   when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades;  but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:6-8 (NRSV)

 “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  Mark 1:8 (NRSV)

What does it look like to prepare a path for the Lord in this wilderness we find ourselves in at the end of 2017?   Honestly I’m too weary to figure this out and should know better than to try.  If I could interview John the Baptist, I would ask him, “How do we cry out to those who deny their own fragility and mortality?” I can’t hear his answer, but the Gospel writer Mark reports that he told the people that Jesus would baptize them in the Holy Spirit.

In the desert, there is a scorching breeze that can stifle our breath. We can’t cry out to prepare the way of the Lord if we can’t breathe. Our only hope right now is the Breath of God, which makes the first move in preparing a path in our minds and souls so that we hear the word that we need and can act on it with the power we need.   This is a season to breathe more deeply than ever before.

Your Call: What spiritual practice would help you make room for the Breath of God to give you the Word and Power you need to discern and fulfill your assignment in this season? Some options may be to offer a prayer like the video above, to allow for more silence and solitude, or to simply take time to breathe deeply as a reminder that the Spirit of God is present.

Advent 1: Waiting in the Gaze of God

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O that you would tear open the heavens and come down. Isaiah 64:1a (NRSV)
Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.  Psalm 80:3 (NRSV)

These are desperate times.

Sexual assault and harassment exposed.

Slave auctions in Libya.

A cruel tax bill that favors the rich.

These are desperate times, so we cry “O Come O Come Emmanuel!”

And we wait for righteousness and justice to prevail.

If we prayed hard enough, would God step out of the sky to confront and correct all injustice with a divine wave of the hand?   We could pray along with the Psalmist who says:

“Restore us, O God, let your face shine, that we may be saved.”

But would we know what we are actually praying?  The loving luminous gaze of God is an amazing thing, but is nothing to be played with.  It guides our steps and infiltrates our souls.  It encourages but it also exposes.  This is the road to restoration, but will we take that journey?

Perhaps there is another plan at work to answer our prayers, like when Jesus came down as the Incarnate God, not by stepping out of the sky but by showing up in the womb of a young woman from Nazareth.

In the midst of unchecked abuse of power and its consequences, Advent asks us:
Who will we be and what will we do on Christ’s behalf?

Your Call: How are you being called to represent Christ during these troubling times as Advent begins?

The Power of Praying Beyond Your Words, Part 3

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Thinking about the future can usually go in one of two directions…excited anticipation or worrisome speculation.  A few weeks ago, I found my thoughts leaning toward the latter with what-if’s cluttering up my mental space.  As those thoughts began to settle in where they didn’t belong, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  The flurry I saw turned out to be a few sparrows in flight.  At that moment, I was reminded of two things. First, I recalled the words of Jesus, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…” Second, I remembered why I love watching birds. It’s cool when I manage to catch the Creator being creative.

The beauty of prayer is that it offers the opportunity for us to listen as God begins the dialogue.  And this can happen as we observe nature.  Yes, I see birds all of the time, but when I really pay attention, their appearance is a form of prayer.  The week after my sparrow sighting, I delighted in taking a picture of a robin posing upon a lamppost, looking calm and cared for.

Under Evergreen's EyeA few years ago during a season that felt barren, I went to a retreat in the hopes of getting refreshed and took this picture of a group of trees on the grounds. Notice the evergreen trees behind the trees with the bare branches.  I was grateful for this reminder that in spite of the seasonal changes that we go through, God’s presence and power are stable.

Your Call: Can you recall a time when you caught the Creator being creative in nature?  What do you think God was communicating to you at that time?  Share in the comments section below.