The sermon for this past weekend was "How to Get You Day Started Off Right." It was a great distillation of some of the Wednesday sermons done by Lisa and Paul many moons ago on a similar topic. What struck me about this sermon, however, was how well it resonated with Philip Yancey's book on prayer that I'm currently in the midst of reading. Joel spoke of starting our day off, relaxed in the peace and strength of God. He spoke of dealing with the distractions that often get in our way of doing just that.

The next day, over lunch, I crack open Yancy to Chapter 14: Tongue Tied ... dealing with moments when prayer does not come easily. One of the major sections of the chapter? "Distractions."

I'd scribbled down a few ways that I tend to center myself throughout the day. "Music" is an easy call. It lends itself to meditation and offers an ease of memorization. And it's easy to find ways to have music coarsing throughout the day, even if muted a bit while at work, surrounded by coworkers. "Reading" struck me as a rather unorthodox method. I'll confess, I'm an addict for stuff to read. But how that allows us (or at least me) to relate to God is something I don't think I would have seen so clearly a decade or so ago. Reading good writers helps. Finding a niche of a genre that speaks to where you are helps, too.

Those two activities were relatively easy to come up with. After that, I added "Prayer" even though I often feel like I relate to too many of Yancey's negative examples and too few of his positive ones. Still, I do pray ... however awkwardly, however proper or improperly, however focused or unfocused, however productive or unproductively. Part of that Chapter 14 of Yancey's that I would read the day after Joel's message had a section entitled: "Doing It Right." This was probably the part of the chapter that spoke to me most:

Over the years the church has repeatedly shifted its emphasis in prayer. Early Christians, a tiny minority huddled against a hostile empire, prayed together for strength and courage. As Christainity became socially accepted the state church composed majestic prayers, while spiritual dissidents moved out into the desert in order to purify themselves. The Middle Ages, a harsh time of plague and poverty, stressed penitence and a plea for mercy. Later, Anselm and Bernard of Clairvaux led a rediscovery of the love and mercy of God, and St. Francis called forth a carefree joy that harked back to Jesus. Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, and the Quaker George Fox explored the interior, mystical silence of the heart while Brother Lawrence practiced God's presence in the midst of mundane work. Luther steered away from mysticism toward practical devotion, even as Calvin emphasized the majesty of God.

The diversity continues today. I have stood in a Russioan Orthodox cathedral and watched grandmothers weep uncontrollably though they understood barely a word of the prayers being chanted in Old Slavonic. I have listened as Korean Presbyterians in Chicago sang hymns and prayed loudly through the night. In some African-American churches, you can barely hear the prayer for all the cries of "Amen!" and "Now listen, Lord!" In Japan, when the pastor announced congregational prayer, everyone prays at once, aloud. Members of a Chinese house church in Germany continue the stringent practices of the mother country, sometimes praying three days straight while fasting. In Ukraine worshipers stand to pray; in Africa they dance.

Jesus taught a model prayer, the Lord's Prayer, but otherwise gave few rules. His teaching reduces down to three general principles: Keep it honest, keep it simple, and keep it up. Mainly, Jesus pressed home that we come as beloved children to a Father who loves us in advance and cares deeply about our lives. Ask young parents what is the correct way for their toddlers to approach them and you will probably get a puzzled look. Correct way? Being a parent means you do your best to remain available to your childen and responsive to their needs. As Jesus said, if a human parent responds with compassion and not hostility, how much more will God.

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence," urged the author of Hebrews, "so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our times of need."

The fourth item on my list, perhaps influenced by the bag loaded full of sermon tapes was "Sermon tapes." I mentioned in the previous post about how reviewing sermons from the past weekend, I tend to require nothing else going on around me. Having seen the sermon live, I have a slight tendency to pick things up in the audio-only version that I might miss while seated a few rows away from the pastor giving the sermon. I work in communications and deal with an array of mediums: internet, audio, video, and print. Often, I find myself looking for ways to say essentially the same thing, but looking for different ways to deliver the same message ... so that in case it misses with one means of delivery, it connects with the other.

The last item on my list is one I still wrestle with: "Blogging." At first glance, it might seem that blogging is only slightly different than keeping a prayer journal or a devotional journal. And maybe for some, it's just that. For my own sake, what I get out of blogging is the thought process that goes into each post - however long-winded or however brief. It's like a morning jog in some regards. And just as Yancey refers to jogging in his latest book, I too get fidgety if I've gone too long without the mental excercise it takes to commit a thought process or two into blog form. Another way of looking at this might very well be that it's just one more way to connect the senses to the level I need them to be at.

Taken together, the sermon combined with landing on Yancey's Chapter Fourteen was a great way to spend a Sunday. Sadly, I had more to do ... and those qualify as distractions. And as far as I can arrive at a concluding thought on all of this, I guess I should note that when you begin your day properly centered, with a mind focused on some word of God in your life, the distractions aren't so burdonsome. At least this past Sunday they weren't.

SIDENOTE: I'd be negligent in my duties if I didn't offer a kudos to Koinonia for doing the afterparty at a restaurant in my neck of the woods. We invaded Don Carlos on the Southwest Freeway and were greeted by a welcome message on the restaurant's sign and a load of good Mexican food. John Mark has a great track record of lining up restaurants that are willing to see a crowd of 70+ people show up at once around 10:30 at night and he's already managed to tip me off to two great restaurants close to home, with this one being literally within walking distance of me (and yet, I've never been!).

I did manage to neglect that this weekend's Koinonia entertainment was provided by Chuck Neighbors. A wonderful one-man performance of "The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass." If you missed it, you owe it to yourself to catch Chuck some other time he's playing. In the meantime, there's numerous sample clip of Chuck's performance on his site.