Thursday of the Fourth Week in Lent

The prayer is answered only of the one who has lifted her heart in it.

Rarely does prayer come easy for me. I sit in Church or in silence waiting for the words to come -- and sometimes they just don't. It is not that I don't want to pray. Its just that the words feel insufficient. The poetry is stilted. Sometimes I open up the Book of Common Prayer and thumb through the pages. It offers prayers so much better; but, they are not my words; and, I feel dishonest just repeating them. So at times, I am mute.

I realize that what matters is not my clever construction of prayerful language. It is the the song that I sing in my soul that animates my prayers. Prayer is essential to our Lenten discipline, so sometimes I just simply pray that God guide me to know what to do with my life and the strength to follow his guidance. I think the key is to just unlock my heart and offer my prayer, and simply let my spirit carry the words to Heaven.

Webb

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

When God spoke on Mt. Sinai, the whole world became silent.

My bus used to be quiet in the mornings. People getting on the bus, reading the paper or a book, or just looking out the window readying themselves for a new workday. Cellphones, bass beats eminating from tiny white buds attached to ears, and conversations with relative strangers about last night's party or an office affair distract. It is hard to imagine over 600,000 people remaining silent.

Mystics say it is possible to learn every aspect of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. They are our touchstone for spiritual living. However, not only do we learn from what is written in the Bible, but we also learn from what is not written. Everything has meaning, even the spaces between the words, the silence. Such sacred silence helps us to remember that we are never alone. Wherever we go, God is with us. Spend some silent time today. Get away from distractions of profane noise. Get off the bus. Listen for God's voice in the silent world that surrounds you.

Webb

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

Tears may linger at nightfall, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:6

I just love this verse. It is at night we feel most alone, most vulnerable, most in need of something to help us cope. The streets are empty and human activity returns to the privacy of the home. Strangers seem to hide behind the shadows and familiar areas seem like unchartered territory in the blackness of night. Darkness seems to paint broad strokes of gloom across the most hopeful parts of our world. But we are not alone -- even at night when it may seem so. We are never alone. God is with us wherever we go, whatever we do. Daylight illuminates the world just as knowledge of the Almighty does so. The hours of the night may tick away slowly, but morning will always come. The knowledge that morning will indeed come, offers us hope, gives us joy. When you awake, say a prayer of thanks. “ Welcome Happy Morning.”

Webb

Monday of the Fourth Week in Lent

Will: We are learning about prophets in Sunday School, prophets come from God to tell us big news
Dad: Who are some prophets?
Will: Moses and Isaiah. So are Martin Luther King and Einstein I think, but they aren't in the Bible.

No, Will they aren’t in the Bible and some people may think it is wrong to suggest they were Prophets, but you just might be on to something. Is Martin Luther King’s “dream” finally becoming reality, and Einstein said the following:
A human being is part of a whole called by us “the universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Yes Will, both King and Einstein called on us look beyond just the few people nearest to us and to seek understanding of all, and practice compassion to all. That is “big news.”

Webb

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Will: If God created everything in the universe, did he create himself?

Jake: That’s a hard question that only wise men can answer, we should ask Webb.

Good thing Webb wasn’t in Dallas that day. Elie Wiesel, the noted author, recalls when he came home from school, his parents never asked him, “Did you give a good answer?” Instead, they asked, “ Did you ask a good question?”

There is so much that is new, strange, and puzzling. Yet we do not ask. Nobody wants to appear ignorant or stupid — especially this self-sufficient lone wolf. Yet we are here on Earth to learn, to do, to live. This Lent let’s stay open, stay willing, and stay teachable. Ignorance is slavery, learning keeps us free.Lent is a time to learn something new about ourselves. Lent is a time to ask God a few questions? When we ask a question about our self we open up, we expose, and we feel a certain vulnerability. It isn’t easy. Yet, the reward is there most assuredly. God never makes us feel stupid for asking, never puts us down, and only responds with a loving tone. If we listen we learn, and as we learn more about ourselves we are freed. So this Sabbath take a few minutes to ask God a question or two. Will, you asked a good question.

Webb

Saturday of the Third Week in Lent

You cannot be anything if you want to be everything. -- S. Schecter

There are those who spend their lives trying to be someone they think they want to be. Unfortunately, they usually lose their true selves along the way. God created us --- each individual. We are miraculous unlike any other person who has been or will ever be. You may share things in common with others. You may even try to look or dress like them. Don’t. Listen to the song in your own heart. Let it sing its sweet melody in your ears alone. Then transform it -- through you — into a psalm of thanksgiving. Thank you God for creating me as me. Do something today that is uniquely you, that others cannot own.

P.S.:Will: I want to be an engineer and build lots of cool things when I grow up. Unless God decides that I should be something else, like a waiter or a zookeeper or something.
Jake: God wants me to play sports, that's why he made both of us.