Praying in Color

Mobile Nav Menu

Archives for October 2011

Autumn Prayer

by 2 Comments Leave a Comment

Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter are my favorite seasons. But Autumn and Winter are my most favorite. The promise of cold temperatures and lengthening nights is my idea of a good season. A phone with a decent camera makes capturing seasonal highlights convenient. Below is a collage of an autumn day in Michigan. I love the spectacle of color and the progressive nakedness of the trees. Also below is a prayer inspired by leaf shapes and the colors of the season.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8 NIV)

While Michigan is enjoying the natural course of leaf turning and leaf dropping, people and trees on the East Coast have suffered an early winter. A New York Times slide show presents pictures of people coping with loss of power and fallen trees and branches.

God-Carrier

by 1 Comment Leave a Comment

In April 2010, Krista Tippett interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa on her radio show On Being. The interview was called Tutu’s God of Surprises. One part of the interview flashes back to me over and over again. While Tutu was a bishop and pastor of a small parish, he was an active opponent of apartheid. Most of the people in his parish were domestic workers for white families. Here is a quote from the interview:

…the white employer most frequently didn’t use the person’s name. They said the person’s name was too difficult. And so most Africans, women would be called “Annie” and most black men really, you were ‘boy.’ And I would say to them, “When they ask who are you, you say, ‘Me? I’m a God-carrier. I’m God’s partner. I’m created in the image of God.'”

The expression “God-carrier” jumped out at me. I know “God-carriers” when I meet them. One characteristic is their hospitality. It’s not about them offering me cookies and lemonade, but about how they receive me as a person. Without knowing anything about me, they look at me as a child of God. They seem nonjudgmental and unafraid. It’s as if God or Jesus was peering through their eyes.

I’d like to think I’m a “God-carrier,” but most of the time, I fear, I’m a “God-barrier.” When I meet the stranger, I’m often wary and guarded. “Who is this person? What are they up to? What do they think and believe?” The stranger has to feel my judgment, my unease, and my fear. A barrier has been constructed between us. Not only is the barrier against the person, but it puts up a barrier between me and God. My psychic armor prevents me from giving and receiving hospitality.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2 NRSV) Showing hospitality to strangers benefits not only the stranger but me. When I receive the stranger as one created in the image of God, I open myself to God and the gifts the stranger has to offer.

My bucket list includes a lot of things, but near the top is “practicing courage with strangers.” I do not want to be a “God-barrier” anymore. I want to be a “God-carrier, God’s partner.”

Praying in Black and White

by 2 Comments Leave a Comment

Several years ago, my husband Andy and I noticed that the ratio of men to women in my Praying in Color Workshops® was a little low. For every fifteen to twenty women, there was one man. That seemed strange because we think praying with pen and markers in hand is a good fit for many men’s temperaments. It is concrete, physical, and practical. It is a process and a product—a prayer time and a prayer drawing.

So we wrote Praying in Black and White: A Hands -On Practice for Men, published by Paraclete Press. Maybe the title seems corny, passé, or sexist. The book is designed for men (or women) who are unlikely to tote around pink, yellow, and mauve markers. The practice uses only pen and paper and encourages drawing/praying anytime, any place.  But more than the specifics of what drawing implement to use, it’s a special invitation for men who see prayer as just the gift or parlance of women. It’s an attempt to invite men who have relinquished their power as pray-ers back to the prayer table. Praying in Black and White has simple, step-by-step instructions for praying for others, for praying Scripture, for praying with the breath…. For people who might be embarrassed about reading a book on prayer, the black cover and paperback-size make it innocuous and pocket-ready.

Praying in Black and White: A Hands -On Practice for Men is available through all the usual suspects: Paraclete Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, Indie Bound–but not Borders :-(

If anyone is in Memphis on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, The Episcopal Bookshop is hosting an Open House from 10AM-6PM. Andy will sign books from 4:30-6 on Wednesday afternoon.

Forgiveness?

by 2 Comments Leave a Comment

The last few weeks have given me plenty of opportunity to put on a few pounds—Paris, a trip to the mountains and my mother-in-law’s house, weekend company, a clergy conference at a place with abundant good food. In the past ten years, I’ve gained ten pounds, more than in my entire adulthood. As I’ve gotten older it seems much harder to lose those added inches and added mass. Weight loss takes more effort and my body doesn’t have the energy for it. Besides the weight, there are the wrinkles and the spots and the effects of gravity. I’ve noticed in myself a growing disdain for my aging body.

This morning I thought, “Sybil, you need to forgive your body and get on with it.” Then I thought, “What an arrogant thought.” My body has done nothing wrong. It’s doing what aging bodies do. So I really have no right to forgive it. Accept it, yes, but forgive it, no. Just because it has not done what I want it to do does not mean it requires forgiveness.

This whole session of musing made me think about how lightly and inappropriately I use the word “forgive.” Real forgiveness requires a real wrong act. Do I have the right to forgive my children, husband, or friends just because they failed to please me or meet my expectations? I don’t think so. My supposed forgiveness has often been a self-righteous “I forgive you for ____” with a sniff of the nose and a martyr-like roll of the eyes.

The number of times I have been truly wronged or hurt is tiny. Forgiveness for those acts has not come quickly or easily. If and when I actually forgive, I don’t feel self-satisfaction or pride, I feel surrender. It’s not something I can do alone without God’s help.

Matthew’s gospel reminds me that forgiveness is difficult and ongoing work.  “At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22, The Message)