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Today is a national holiday which we call Memorial Day.  Stores close, government closes, schools close, most families spend it with their grills cooking favorite foods, and some families travel to cemeteries where they plant flowers over the graves of loved ones who served our country in the military.  Our entire nation stops what it’s doing and spends time “remembering” – that’s what Memorial Day is all about.  For almost forty years, whenever I take a deposition of a witness who is a veteran of our military, I always say on the record, “Thank you for your service to our country.”  [In the blog posted on June 9, 2022, “Survivor’s Guilt,” I shared how not serving in the military has affected me.]

When my kids were very small, even in a stroller, I took them to a local cemetery, and we all spread out to find a soldier’s grave which did NOT have flowers on it.  We would then plant a flower over that grave, form a circle, and say a prayer thanking God for this person who served our country in the military.  One of my highlight memories of doing this came when I overheard my youngest Elena ask her big brother Jon as we searched for a veteran’s grave, “Do you think you will do this with your kids when you have a family?” to which he replied, “Yes, I sure do!” and then I heard the older sister Katrina’s voice, “Me too.”  I love that memory!

The Blessings of Remembering can bring us great joy, as the above memory brings to me when I relive it for the hundredth time (if not more!).  However, there can be pain and hurt and regret and guilt also with remembering.  The biblical practice of remembering how God had acted in the history of His people, along with exhortations to never forget the acts of God, actually permeate the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. 

This could lead us to a mammoth bible study on the role of memory in the life of a Christ-follower.  I will only cite only one such passage.  The 77^th Psalm is a cry of pain and fear of being abandoned by God, one of the most emotional crying out to God in scriptures, written by Asaph who was David’s choir director and author of 13 powerful psalms.  Listen to how Asaph opens up his Psalm 77: “I cry out to God; yes, I shout.  Oh, that God would listen to me! …You don’t let me sleep.  I am too distressed even to pray… Has the Lord rejected me forever?  Will he never again be kind to me?  Is his unfailing love gone forever?  And I said, ‘This is my fate: the Most High has turned his hand against me.’”

And it is Psalm 77:11 which turns this painful recitation around and heads the Psalmist in a different direction: “But then I recall all you have done, O Lord.  I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.  They are constantly in my thoughts.  I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.” [NLT].  The world of Asaph literally turned around 180 degrees and heads in a positive direction when he stopped complaining and started remembering!

The Blessings of Remembering sure did the job for Asaph.

Every day of my life can and should be a Memorial Day, a day when I recall and think constantly about how real God is and how much He has done in my life!  It is so easy, all I have to do is remember my doctor telling me 7 years ago, “If you had passed that kidney stone in three days instead of 8 weeks your aggressive cancer would have killed you in six months!”  Thank you Lord for The Blessings of Remembering and for a new day of extended life!

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

I taught a Sunday School Adult Ed class today which dug into the 3^rd chapter of the book of Jonah, not your ordinary bible study for Mother’s Day!  I always start out with a short introduction time so that people can get to know each other better.  Today I asked each person to share a meaningful memory of their mother. 

The memories our classmates shared were so poignant, so moving, and/or so wonderful that I cannot stop thinking about them, now some 12 hours later.  My shared memory was about how my mother stepped in to coach my junior high basketball team when our coach was ill.

This classroom experience has caused me to dig into the purpose and meaning of “fellowship” in the context of church. Fellowship is Much Deeper than Eating Donuts After Sunday School.  We talk about “fellowship” so often that the English word may become empty, sort of a generalization for nothing more than simply describing when the church gets together, usually in social settings.  We even speak of meeting in the “fellowship hall” for donuts after the worship service.  But what really does “fellowship” mean in the context of being the “church”?

The New Testament has a lot to say about “fellowship.” Acts 2:48 – “All believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship (koinonia), and to sharing in meals”; and I John 1:3 – “We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship (koinonia) with us.  Our fellowship (koinonia) is with the father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”   Use “common mindedness” instead of “fellowship” in the above passages and you see why I have focused on how “non-donuty” this word “fellowship” really is.  Fellowship is Much Deeper than Eating Donuts After Sunday School

The Greek word used in all of these passages is koinonia which is a compound word formed by koine (“common”) and nous (“mind”) – hence, koinonia has at its root, a sense of “common mindedness” which to me is way deeper than  “fellowship.”  And what might the topics be that we in the church are called to have a “common mind” about?

“In essentials, Unity; in non-essentials, Liberty; and in all things, Love” is a well known formula for deciding on doctrinal “negotiables” and “non-negotiables.”  So, is it fair to suggest that the church should have a “common mind” as to “essentials” and enjoy “liberty” and “love” in all other areas?  Defining what are the essentials of course is a daunting task.  We have 1000’s of denominations of churches which have begun due to a split over something deemed “essentials.” 

This old joke:  a shipwrecked man being rescued from a deserted island where he has lived alone for decades is asked, “Sir, I notice you built three buildings on this island; one looks like your house and the other two look like churches.  Why two churches?”  The rescued man: “Well, I had some theological problems with the first church, so I had to find a new church.”  Deciding what should be koinonia of the church is certainly a hugely important issue and not to be undertaken lightly.

A focus of The Merton Prayer is our goal of aiming to “please God” in everything we do.  Choosing whom to have koinonia with and what is deemed “essential” for measuring “common mindedness” are clearly very important issues.  I love donuts, too much for sure, but Fellowship is Much Deeper than Eating Donuts After Sunday School!!  May God bless you this week as you seek and enjoy koinonia with God and with significant others in your life!

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

When I was a kid, if I heard it once I heard it thousands of times:  Clean Up Your Plate if You Want Dessert!  In fact, the refrain still bounces around inside my skull on occasion; especially when faced with a new and delicious-looking dessert.  How many times have I lusted after that white cake with chocolate icing?  Lots, trust me! 

The things in need of “being cleaned up” before dessert were usually vegetables!  Cauliflower and Brussel sprouts and, worst of all, Bok Choi, always ended up being eaten last in my pantheon of gastronomic delights! Perhaps I push this food metaphor a tad too far, but will you grant me that Heaven is the “dessert” of a life lived in connection with the Lord?  So that means the “veggies” are the more mundane things of the Christian journey through this world:  Bible study, the spiritual disciplines, caring for the widows and orphans, etc etc.

Seriously, if we always and only went right to dessert without chomping on a single veggie, then we would never have heard the phrase:  Clean Up Your Plate If You Want Dessert!  We are creatures of habit, and one of the human habits we all can fall prey to, is when we want the joy, happiness, satisfaction, full-stomach feeling, but we do not want to defer that gratification with having to eat veggies! The Merton Prayer’s dessert is that God “is ever with me” and “will never leave me to face my perils alone.”  And the veggies:  I see the day-to-day actions which show my “desire to please God in everything that I do” as my plate full of opportunities which need to be ingested into my soul.  

All of the above, slightly fluffy and non-deep to be sure, to say this:  Christ-followers far too often give lip-service only to showing sacrificial and unconditional love (agape) for others.  God has put people in our lives, some of whom we may at times wish were elsewhere, and we are called to show agape to every single one of these people, every single day, in every single encounter!  Listen to the Apostle John: “This is how we know what love (agape) is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” I John 3:16 (NIV). 

And then we hear in James 2:16 the following: “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works” (NLT).  So, we can tell the world all day long how much Jesus means to us, but if our actions do not comport with his words then our words fall empty to the ground with no impact on the listeners.  And that is precisely why Clean Up Your Plate If You Want Dessert makes such good sense gastronomically and spiritually!

The dessert is always much sweeter when we have delayed gratification while working through the veggies.  And here, mercifully, is the final food metaphor:  as we live out our faith in actions we are constantly reminded that these veggies are really good for us.  “Pray without ceasing,” “encourage one another,” “forgive one another,” and “love one another” are just a few of the “veggies” the New Testament serves up for us as we anticipate how sweet the dessert will be. 

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

Yesterday I had breakfast with a friend who, along with his wife and my wife, are part of our small couple’s group which has met regularly for several years for bible study, prayer, and fellowship.  We have given this small group the title:  Parents Anonymous! He and I share a similar temporary “bachelorhood,” as our wives are both in California serving the needs of our adult children and our very young grandchildren.  We had a delightful time chatting, laughing, and encouraging each other.  The two hours we spent at that restaurant flew by. 

His career as a high school track coach specializing in the sport of pole vault was well known to me before our breakfast; the fact that he, his father, his older brother, and his son were all pole vaulters, covering almost a century, was news to me. I was also amazed to learn that Coach had spent four years in the Air Force!

But it was our discussion on the topic of our new temporary status as “bachelors” which got us deeper than even learning new biographical facts about each other.  In reflecting on this new knowledge later, I was once again refreshed spiritually by getting to know a fellow Christ-follower at a deeper level.  Deep Calls to Deep is what the Psalmist said in 42:7 (NIV and KJV); after opening that Psalm with “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2).

I shared with Coach that at this stage of my life, in my eighth decade [wow am I old!!], I have decided that I do not have energy for constant and exclusive superficiality.  His response: “Steve, that was profound.”  I then shared how important the 42^nd Psalm was to me.  Deep Calls to Deep means that for one who seeks a real relationship with God, superficiality simply cannot survive for long.  When an acquaintance is content to connect with me ONLY on a superficial level, I notice – either on purpose or accidentally – that I usually find myself distancing from that person.   

In the early 2000’s I was part of a four-man small group that met weekly for over a decade.  Three of us wanted to go “deeper” in our relationships to include the Christian discipline of confession.  That small group broke up, because while four men waded into the Deep Calls to Deep of spiritual companionship, one of us wanted only to go ankle-deep.

Scripture does not countenance superficiality: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other” [James 5:16, NIV], neither of which can regularly be done superficially. Coach prayed out loud giving thanks for our food and praying for the health of each other.  Our waiter placed items on our table without interrupting the prayer! I was blessed by my friend’s comfort with praying in a public setting, and I suspect our waiter was blessed too.

The Merton Prayer simply cannot be authentically prayed while being content to remain only ankle-deep in one’s relationship with God and others!  “Superficiality bequeaths superficiality, whereas Deep Calls to Deep” [from the book’s cover]. I encourage you this week to take Deep Calls to Deep steps with one spiritual companion.  Go deeper than simply discussing the weather, politics, or how your favorite sports team is doing!  And by the way, “Coach, thank you for your service to our country!”

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

After three weeks of putting on my case of medical malpractice, it was now time for the “closing arguments” by the attorney for each side.  I got up from my table, walked to the front of the jury box, and said with a calm and confident voice, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury”.

What happened next is my favorite part of a trial.  I get to tell the jury my interpretation of the evidence they have heard. My goal is to convince the jury that my client should win the case.  Since some of the jury may be inclined to believe my opponent, I say as powerfully as possible, “I want to change your minds!”

Interestingly, at the end of my closing argument comes what is termed a “prayer for relief.”  My Websters dictionary defines prayer as “The earnest request or wish, a petition to God or a god in word or thought.”  The Merton Prayer is more a prayer of confession and adoration than it is a petition or “earnest request.”  Several people at workshops I have led point out that The Merton Prayer does not ask God for anything; a fact confirming this is a prayer of confession and adoration.

If I am honest with myself and with you, many, if not all, of my prayers include a very big per centage of time on requests and petitions and very little time in confession and adoration. My prayers far too often sound like Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury!  “Lord, you know the pain my sister Jana is going through right now after falling and breaking her hip.  Please comfort her and allow her to succeed in her rehab treatment.” Or this…”Lord, help the pilots flying me from California to Illinois get a good night’s sleep tonight so they can fly the plane safely tomorrow.”  These prayers are not wrong; we are wise to seek God’s power for such petitions and God is faithful to hear and answer our prayers.

However, I strongly believe that prayer should never be just about Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury with me telling God exactly what I want God to do.  We should not pray to change God’s mind; our prayers should seek to align ourselves with God’s will.  Jesus modeled this principle for us, right?  “Not my will but thy will be done.” We do not have to guess at what the “my will” was that he was giving up.  Luke 22:42 quotes Jesus in his garden prayer of agony, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.” Jesus models for us the human practice of wanting God to change something we are facing, while immediately also aligning ourself to God’s will.

Maybe this is why The Merton Prayer has so captivated me for decades now.  It’s like a breath of fresh prayer air: “I have no idea where I am going,” “Nor do I really know myself,” and “the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean I am doing so.”  And then the wonderful adoration of God fills my soul with joy: “You will lead me by the right road,” “You are ever with me,” and “You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Perhaps this week you and I will add The Merton Prayer’s confession and adoration to our usual Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury prayers.  I encourage you to memorize The Merton Prayer and make it a regular part of your connecting with God. A friend of mine recently shared with a big smile on his face that he has memorized The Merton Prayer.  Being able to pray this prayer from memory has been such a blessing to me and countless others.

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3 hour, 5 hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

Easter has come and gone, and I am chewing on something which has bugged me for decades.  The building where I yesterday attended Resurrection Sunday worship was overflowing with people in attendance, people standing in all the aisles and folding chairs even set up outside (weather was accommodating here in California, don’t you know!).  Let me be clear that I am happy so many people came to worship on the day that we celebrate Jesus having left the tomb and “turned our world inside out” as my pastor Dr. Paul Detterman said in his Easter sermon.  His point was that the tomb had been “inverted” — death back into the world of the living, darkness into light! I hope and pray that seeds were planted which will fill the pews, aisles, and outside folding chairs next week too!

What is bugging me today is linguistic:  the phrase Going to Church. 

The following blog content notwithstanding, I confess to having used “the church” improperly myself, even though I have known what I share today since my undergraduate days in a Christian college where I spent hours loving to study New Testament Greek.  The Greek word translated “church” is ekklesia from which we get the transliterated English word “ecclesiastic,” etc.   The Christians in the biblical book of Acts were referred to as being ekklesia.  Indeed, we rightly describe Acts as “the history of the church.” 

Ekklesia comes from two words, the little preposition ek which means “out of” and the verb kaleo which means “to call out.”  “The church” is therefore, literally, “the called-out ones.”  Therefore, “the church” is NOT a building, “the church” is the people who gather to worship!  Hence, linguistically it is incorrect to ever say, I am Going to Church since, the fact is, I and my fellow worshippers are the church!  That is what bugs me, has for decades.

The first century Christians likely never once described their times of worship as Going to Church and neither should we.  I have said all of the above to say this:  the world will not be changed by us Going to Church.  The world will be changed by the church being the church, being “the called-out ones,” leaving their building and taking the good news of the gospel into the world. 

Here’s a hint which has helped me be linguistically correct on this issue:  next time you find yourself preparing to say you are Going to Church, try this awkward yet correct phrase instead, I am going to the “church’s building!”  If someone is listening, they may question you, which just might allow you the opportunity to explain ekklesia, and “the called-out ones.”

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3 hour, 5 hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

The other day I was working on a case my law firm is handling, and I looked in vain for over 1,000 pages of medical records which should have been in the file.  I was horrified to discover that I had requested a copy of these records from the hospital three months earlier! My first instinct was to browbeat myself for failing to be organized well since I should have received those records at least two months ago. 

Quickly, seemingly on autopilot, I started browbeating the hospital records department for their incompetence, laziness, disorganization, and a dozen other negative adjectives!  My call to the records department resulted in the records being sent to me via an adobe link within one hour!  But it was the conversation with the hospital employee which still reverberates in my mind and heart. 

Me: “Seriously, you have had my written request, the proper signed authorization, and the $384 check to cover the cost for almost 100 days!”

She: “Sir, I am so sorry, and to be honest, I have been unable to even find my desk, there are so many records requests piled up needing my attention.  It feels like I take one step forward and five steps backwards!”

A friend recently stunned my linguistic love of a well-turned phrase, when he used a phrase which, to me, could easily be applied to the hospital worker:   “Immersed in Inertia.”  My Websters says inertia means “indisposition to motion, exertion, or change.”  Immersed means “covered over, completely underneath.” I truly feel that hospital worker could claim to be Immersed in Inertia, coming to work every day with a piled-up desk of urgent jobs which needed her attention, but which she could not realistically provide.

I am sure she did not sit idly at her piled-high desk out of laziness.  I envision her jumping from one task to another, involved in putting out fires, one by one, while the slow burning embers of a three-month-old records request was not near the top of her priority list!   We humans can be so swept up in the “tyranny of the urgent” that the non-urgent just sits and sits, waiting for someone to push it into our field of vision! [I highly recommend Charles Hummel’s 1997 booklet “Freedom from the Tyranny of the Urgent” (Intervarsity Press)].

Being overwhelmed, completely underneath, and covered over, without the ability to move, exert, or change is an awful image which bespeaks death rather than life.  The need to move, exert, and change keeps us alive and helps us focus, grow, and enjoy transformation.  Christ-followers intent on honoring, loving, and walking daily/hourly with God invite into their lives real spiritual transformation and the idea of being Immersed in Inertia, voluntarily or involuntarily, is abhorrent, disgusting, and unwelcome.

The subtitle of my book on The Merton Prayer is “An Exercise in Authenticity” which invites readers to acknowledge that one cannot pray this prayer regularly and remain superficial in one’s faith journey.  The Merton Prayer is packed with rarely encountered honest authenticity in connecting with the Creator God of the Universe.  If you feel at all, slightly, or fully Immersed in Inertia in your prayer life and connecting with God, I encourage you this week to pray this prayer many times a day, especially when you feel beset with the “tyranny of the urgent” and see how God meets you.  Inertia cannot even exist, in my humble opinion, when one breathes The Merton Prayer into one’s spiritual journey regularly. “My Lord God;” “I hope I have the desire to please you;” “I will trust you always;” “I will not fear;” “I think that I am following your will;” and “You will never leave me to face my perils alone;” along with the entire 158 words of this prayer just might grab your heart in ways not felt before as you walk closer with God.

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3 hour, 5 hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

Today’s blog shares with you three mantras which come into my life every day.

“This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.”  (Psalm 118:24 ESV) This is the mantra with which my wife Miran and I begin every morning.  It jolts us to several Merton Prayer realities:  God is in control, He knows which road we need to follow, we don’t even know ourselves, He will lead us on the right road even though we may not even begin to understand why it is the right road, He is with us every step of the journey, and He will never leave us to face the dangers and perils which we will encounter.

Often, giving vent to my well-known goofy side, the next mantra I cite was learned from my father when I was a young child: “every day above ground is a gift from the Lord, so thank you Lord for allowing me to have another day of life.”  Sometimes I share this latter lighter mantra with a stranger, say the person in line next to me at the check-out counter, and many times a delightful spontaneous conversation erupts, often with the store cashier joining in also.  Other times the stranger gives me a look of pity and turns away, clearly not interested in chatting with me!

Ever since my 2017 bout with deadly cancer, these two mantras have meant so much more to me.  I literally thank God every day for extended life.  “So, Steven, what are you going to do with this gift from God of one more day of extended life?”  As I write these words it is 4:30am, I look out my window and the sky is pitch dark, I see maybe three windows lit in the 20 story apartment building a block away from me, my wife is in California with our new granddaughter, the condo could not be quieter (save for the quarter-hour ringing of the Grandmother Clock, not to be confused with a Grandfather Clock!), and once again I come face-to-face with “Lord, why did you allow me to have an extended life?”  I hope I do not waste this day.

After breakfast I will walk the two blocks to my office, spend two hours with Ed and Kevin the junior members of the Cutie Pie (Senior) Lawyers Club.  These spiritual companions usually go deeper in our conversation and friendship than most of my acquaintances.  I am always enriched by my time with them.  Then at 11:00am I will spend at least one hour with my co-counsel Michael working on our cases which are either in suit or being prepared for suit.  This afternoon I hope to relax at home while watching some of the March Madness basketball games, rooting for my Kentucky Wildcats to go further in the tourney this year than they did last year when they lost the first game [who had heard of the St. Peter Peacocks?]!  Tonight, I will enjoy attending a birthday dinner honoring my friend Richard and my extravertive side will delight in meeting new people and connecting with known friends. 

At various times during this day, as with every day of my life, I will be tempted to ruminate and worry about many things confronting me and some family members.  I forget the blog I wrote on December 4, 2022, titled “Worry and worship cannot coexist,” and I find myself allowing fear to creep in to my psyche. This is when my third daily mantra is so helpful.  My Father Owns the Cattle on a Thousand Hills.  My annual income as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer is either feast or famine. One year when my adjusted gross income was -$14,000 I had a memorable conversation with my three young children.  I told them we would have to cut back on unnecessary spending this year since my income was so low.  I wanted my kids to not be afraid, to trust the Lord, so I adapted the words of Psalm 50:10 with my words of reassurance, “Kids please don’t worry since God has always provided for us.  I choose not to ever worry about finances, since My Father Owns the Cattle on a Thousand Hills“; to which my eldest Katrina said, “Does Granddaddy Denny own a farm in Kentucky?”  Stifling laughter I calmly said, “well, it sort of does mean that, but not a real farm with real cows!”

Yes, every day above ground can be a very good day, I am required by my Lord to rejoice and be glad in this day, and when tempted to worry about some of life’s problems I will recall just how much God has blessed me, over and over and over and over.  Recounting those blessings will indeed bring me to an attitude of worship rather than worry.  May my three mantras be a blessing to you today and every day!

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please email me at TheMertonPrayer@gmail.com.  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3 hour, 5 hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

Genesis 16 contains the well-known and agonizing story of one woman’s pain and God’s response to that pain.  Abraham’s wife Sarah reevaluated her plan to get a child for her elderly husband by letting him sleep with her handmaid Hagar.  Sarah’s pain led her to banish Hagar.

That’s when the coolest God/Human encounter happened:  Hagar is hiding and running to save her life, and voila, she sees and hears an angel of the Lord.  “You are pregnant and will give birth to a son!”  (So much for ancient pregnancy tests!) “God has heard your cries of distress.  You are to name your son Ishmael.” 

The name Ishmael comes from two Hebrew words shama’ (to hear) and ‘el (God).  Ishmael  means “God hears” or “God has heard.”   This baby will grow up to found one of the world’s three great religions, Islam.  Hagar was told that God had not abandoned her, that her cries of distress and pain had been heard, and that she was to commemorate that fact by naming her little boy Ishmael.  Everyone reading this blog can likely identify with Hagar’s cries of distress to the Lord.  Just yesterday, I literally yelled to God, “Please Lord, you are the Great Physician, you can cure my restless legs syndrome condition which drives me crazy.”  (I was alone in my office and only God and I heard my wailing!) I suspect that you also, at some point in your life, have  “pulled a Hagar,” and cried out to God asking, begging, for God to hear your cries of distress.

Every time I get to the end of The Merton Prayer, I feel like my name should be Ishmael. Thank you Lord for hearing my cries of distress and for this promise: “You are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”  No matter where we are or what our circumstances are, My Name is Ishmael, since God indeed hears my cries, every time!  Facing a diagnosis of terminal illness? My Name is Ishmael.  Just fired from your job because of an awful  misunderstanding?  My Name is Ishmael.  Your spouse just left you after announcing they had been unfaithful on numerous occasions:  My Name is Ishmael. Your sibling has lied about you to others which causes a breach in your relationship.  My Name is Ishmael.

In the book I share many stories of how God meets us in our deepest need and never abandons us, never, in spite of our severe or catastrophic situations.  After being told by my doctor that I had “aggressive prostate cancer,” I walked to my car quietly reciting The Merton Prayer.  I just as easily could have repeated over and over My Name is Ishmael since I could never be out of range for God to hear me.  And then there is the story of my fear of heights, or more accurately my fear of edges, as I was stuck behind the wheel driving my car up the narrow road to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado.  My Name is Ishmael.

May God bless you this week as you encounter times of pain and uncertainty.  May you gain much strength and blessing and peace as you “pull a Hagar” – because you and I can always claim My Name is Ishmael – and then enjoy the peace which comes from knowing that God had indeed heard our cries.

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3 hour, 5 hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!

My sister-in-law Mikyoung Lee is an amazing artist who also is a Professor of Iconography at Incheon Catholic University in Incheon, South Korea.  She teaches university students how to create beautiful/meaningful paintings of Christ, Mother Mary, and other Saints of the Church, which elicit worship and connect people to God.  Her artwork is a focus of our private worship center in our Illinois condo.  In the world of Christian iconography, Mikyoung Lee’s artwork is well known and respected.

The English word icon comes from Greek eikennai which means “to be like or to resemble” which is why in English we usually just say “image.”  In Christianity, icons are normally paintings done on wooden panels, usually pine or linden.  Their production can often be a long, laborious, and complex process which may involve a layer of linen cloth soaked in sturgeon glue which is put on the wooden panel before the painting is done.

As a Protestant I grew up believing that Christian icons were evil since I was told that people prayed to the painting rather than to God, which I am sure may be true in some cases.  However, my faith journey has now brought me to enjoy and respect icons as points of connection with God.  One of my absolute favorites is of Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, who was the human being entrusted by God with helping Mary raise our Lord to adulthood.  When I gaze upon this icon, I do not pray to Saint Joseph, I ask Saint Joseph to please pray for me and my family and my country and my world! No different than my asking spiritual companions in my small group for prayer requests; if heaven is real, then by faith we can believe that all the saints are able to receive our requests and to intercede for us in prayer.  A truly amazing and glorious thought, yes?

If the above prayer assertions are true, and I believe they are, then the two people who taught me to pray, my mother and father, are also available to intercede for me now as they enjoy singing in the heavenly chorus of millions, yea billions, of the saints who have gone before us.  No artist creates icons of my parents, or your parents; however, the “image” of my mother and father needs no enhanced depiction on pine or linden.  The “icons” of Gayle and Mary K. Denny are implanted somewhere in my brain, never to fade by sunlight or spilled water!  Please pray for me my mother and father!

So here is our query in a nutshell:  Is intercessory prayer real or just stupid fantasy we humans have created to soothe our worried souls?  I could point you to websites with titles like “35 Scriptures for Intercessory Prayer” but all I need do is cogitate on James 5:16. The half-brother of Jesus said this: “Pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”  (NLT).  The next query is this:  Their bodies died but are their spirits/souls alive to hear our requests and pray for us?  This is answered for me in Luke 23:43 where Jesus turns to a criminal whose body is dying and who will be dead in a matter of moments, and he says this to him: “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  (NLT)

Unashamedly, thus, I say Please Pray For Me to the Apostle Paul, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, Earl Hargrove (founder of Lincoln Christian College), Chuck Colson, Dean Dickinson (brother-in-law), Pope John Paul, Joseph (stepfather of Jesus), and Mary K and Gayle Denny (my parents).  May you enjoy the blessings which come from your prayers for others and from others’ prayers for you.

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3 hour, 5 hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!