Prayers That Make an Extraordinary Difference

I am in one of those spiritual seasons where I find that I’m experiencing an unusual amount of activity in having prayers answered. That being so, I thought I would take this week and examine which prayers seem to be more effective as best as I can tell.
What comes to mind right away is what I have labeled the “first-thoughts prayers.” Having an active mind (my husband came to bed last night, creeping quietly into the room so as not to wake me, slipping between the covers carefully—at which point I surprised him by shouting “Boo!”), I rarely wake feeling groggy. The plans and activities of the day flood me. “What mountain are you scheming to climb now?” he asked, after we both laughed at my sleeping ruse. “The Himalayas?”
So I have imposed upon myself of turning my mind to God first thing, and no matter what time I wake, spending that first hour in prayer (as much as I am able), praising Him, trying to remember His goodness in my life, recounting His nature and character. If I don’t go back to sleep (sometimes—well, often—this first time exercise is practiced in the middle of the night), I then get up and try to keep myself from running downstairs to finish a project, clean up the kitchen or read a book I may have started.

To read more, click HERE.

Video Friday

An African saying goes, ‘Wasiyejua ya kale, yajayo watayatambua? Those who do not know their history, will they understand their future? Last Friday we had fun moments viewing our pictures and seeing videos. I pulled some video off the internet of a sewing project in Nairobi which I thought would inspire Global Bag Project ladies. Our after-video discussion revolved around, what did you see? What did you hear? and what do we learn? From this discussion we learnt the values of prayer and fellowship as we saw in AMANI YA JUU video. In Africa, story-telling is one of the most treasured tools for teaching people of all ages. Story telling involves life experiences of other people who the audiences can easily identify with. Stories therefore instill a sense of ‘can do attitude’.

We also got to watch Mary Nduta’s story and her dreams here. Having Nduta watch with us her own story made it more interesting, she paused a few times to fill in the gaps and put the story in context. After the video she took time to motivate the ladies and I could see the interest in the eyes that meant, ‘yes, I identify with this story’. My question about who among them would want to inspire others with their stories was answered with giggles and laughter. This meant it could be any of them. After all at Global Bag Project, we say ‘every bag has a story’ and we mean it. We have stories to challenge, inspire and transform! Watch this space… 

A New Drug for Health and Happiness

Did you know that the scientific community has been studying the effects of gratitude on the physiological health of humans? Since around the year 2000, social scientists began turning their focus solely from abnormal psychology to healthy emotional habits and their impact on the way we live.

Wikipedia reports: “A large body of recent work suggests that people who are more grateful have higher levels of well-being. Grateful people are happier, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationship. Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being less likely to try and avoid the problem, deny there is a problem, blame themselves, or cope through substance use. Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they think less negative and more positive thoughts before just going to sleep.”

Yet, even with this truth, even with all the Scriptures that instruct us to give thanks, most of us fall into the ungrateful-wretch category than that of a people whose hearts are overflowing with appreciation—to God and to one another.

To read more, click here.

Dust Allergy

I have an allergy I’m pretty sure is due to dust. If I plunk down in a chair where the upholstery hasn’t been dusted, I’ll go off in paroxysms of coughing and sneezing and of semi-violent blowings of my nose. When the air circulates through the vents in the car, I experience the same thing. I keep boxes and packets of tissues handy—because sooner or later, probably sooner, I will need them.

This allergy comes and goes; usually I suffer for about three weeks to a month, then it calms itself down and I’m back to normal—such a relief, because the allergy is always accompanied by an annoying cough—hack-hack-hack—that feels unrelenting. My adult children monitor my disability—“Mom, when are you going to have that checked out?” Since I self-cure and can go for a month or so between episodes, and since a doctor who examined me when I walked into a critical-care center without an appointment proclaimed it an allergy, I don’t think much about it. If I go to bed for most of a day, do deep-breathing exercises for that bed day, pray for my body with calming prayers, I can shake the allergy, but most of the time, I don’t have a day to make myself allergy-clear.

To read more, click here.

Sabbath Practice

In Memphis at Second Presbyterian Church, I was asked to speak on my book Making Sunday Special, which deals with the topic of restoring a Jewish Sabbath-understanding to our Christian Sunday practice. I realized as I prepared that David and I have let this slip. As I re-read the chapters to remind myself of what I had written, and as I went over my speaking notes, which I haven’t used for several years, an intense longing for Shabbat, that 26-hour weekly ritual, which is both a metaphor of a divine romance—our love relationship with God—and a way to step out of purely secular time and into sacred time, began swelling in my soul.

Sometimes, those of us teach, forget that we teach as much to learn and put into practical activity the scriptural truths we are sharing, as to lead those who listen into biblical information that becomes transformative. I am often stunned when I “get” what any passage in the Bible means—this meaning hits me with force.

To read more, click here.

Sabbath Practice

In Memphis at Second Presbyterian Church, I was asked to speak on my book Making Sunday Special, which deals with the topic of restoring a Jewish Sabbath-understanding to our Christian Sunday practice. I realized as I prepared that David and I have let this slip. As I re-read the chapters to remind myself of what I had written, and as I went over my speaking notes, which I haven’t used for several years, an intense longing for Shabbat, that 26-hour weekly ritual, which is both a metaphor of a divine romance—our love relationship with God—and a way to step out of purely secular time and into sacred time, began swelling in my soul.

Sometimes, those of us teach, forget that we teach as much to learn and put into practical activity the scriptural truths we are sharing, as to lead those who listen into biblical information that becomes transformative. I am often stunned when I “get” what any passage in the Bible means—this meaning hits me with force.

To read more, click here.

The Mellow Age

“For some reason, at this biological stage of what I am calling ‘The Mellow Age,’ I am having more and more of these close encounters of the casual kind. Perhaps it is because I have finally outgrown my innate shyness. Perhaps it is because I’m finding there really is some power in being a white-haired lady—it gives me an edge no one else writes much about. I discovered I can leverage this scandalously. In crowded airplane aisles, for instance, I turn to the young men behind me and plead, ‘Do you think you could help a little white-haired old lady get this suitcase up in the bin?’ I remind them of their own grandmothers; they gladly rush to assist. It is just great. I am becoming more and more like my extraverted friends—sort of a general hostess to any passing strangers...anywhere.”

To read more, click here.

A Hospitality Emphasis

Sometime this last year, I found myself praying, “Oh, Lord, give me a chance with what life is left to me to take a shot at helping to create truly hospitable churches!” I wasn’t surprised (but I was thrilled) when a large church nearby asked me to come teach on “the theology of hospitality.” I counter-offered (embarrassed myself by begging, really) and asked them to take up the challenge of determining what a hospitable church would do and look like, and to let me work alongside the staff and their lay teams for as long as it took to determine the answer to this. They were thrilled. I was thrilled. And we’ll see what God does. This focus, consequently, will be part of the “growing season” for Hungry Souls.

I am passionate about this spiritual gift and extremely concerned by the fact that the church is apparently losing its edge with this powerful tool.

To read more, click here.