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Walking to my office last week I met a man wearing a hat proclaiming that he was a veteran of the Viet Nam war.  I stopped, looked him square in the eyes, and said, “Sir, Thank You For Your Service to Our Country.”  He thanked me, shook my hand vigorously, and noticing my law school sweatshirt asked me, “What kind of law do you do?”  I told him that I was a trial lawyer, that 40% of my cases involved representing victims of childhood sexual assault and the other 60% were medical malpractice, legal malpractice, and a variety of personal injury cases.

He then looked me square in the eyes, paused, and very clearly said, “Sir, Thank You For Your Service to Our Country.”  I have never in my life had anyone say such a thing to me, and I had no response other than to meekly say, “Thank you.”  For 37 years, in court or in a deposition, whenever I was questioning a veteran of our armed forces, I always would tell them, Thank You For Your Service to Our Country.

I have actually had several witnesses tear up when they were thanked for their service to our country.  Confession time:  I teared up when this stranger said to me, Thank You For Your Service to Our Country. 

I have written in The Merton Prayer: An Exercise in Authenticity that I have long suffered from “survivor’s guilt” since many of my high school friends were drafted, sent to Viet Nam, and were injured or killed, while my draft number was 363 out of 366, prompting my father to quip, “Son, those Viet Cong will have to invade Frankfort, Kentucky, before you would get called up into the army!”

My father’s true comment was funny at the time, but it never left my soul, and has fueled my constant awareness of survivor’s guilt.  As I look back on my life I have always felt a twinge of inadequacy, remorse, and – here is the real kicker – envy of those who went to Viet Nam or elsewhere in the military.  And it was this chance encounter with a veteran who said to me, Thank You For Your Service to Our Country, that allowed a decades-long pain to finally subside. 

My helping victims of childhood sex assault (often perpetrated by a family member), victims of medical negligence, victims of attorney malpractice, and the simple car accident and slip-and-fall victims whom I have dedicated my professional life to for over three decades, does indeed constitute “service to my country”!  I can honestly report that the envy, remorse, and inadequacy feelings for not having served in our nation’s military have now been replaced with pride for having stood in the trenches of despair with so many people in my legal career, seeking and often, but not always, succeeding in obtaining justice for hurting people. 

Thank you again sir, not only for your military service, but for the amazing encounter with me, a total stranger wearing a law school sweatshirt, which allowed healing in a raw part of my soul.  I cannot stop ruminating on and smiling about my own Service to Our Country.  The very next day a friend of mine told me that he had given my book on The Merton Prayer to his son who had witnessed a horrific suicide which he had tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent.  He and I both prayed that The Merton Prayer would bring some sense of healing for this traumatic experience. Thank you, God, as Merton prayed, that you will “never leave us to face our perils alone.”

And for me? I will never again feel any sense of failure for my “non-military” service when I sincerely, genuinely, and happily say to the next veteran who crosses my path, “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!

The other captain and I flipped a coin to see who would pick first from our seventh-grade classmates to be on each basketball team.  We knew whoever lost the coin toss would end up with Dwight, who was totally uncoordinated, could not even dribble much less score baskets, yet he always showed up when any sports teams were being formed.  It wasn’t until my senior high school years that I came to really enjoy Dwight’s friendship and his many skills at “non-sports.” 

One day I apologized to him for my past attitude toward him and his response still resonates with me these many years later: “Oh, no problem, Denny, I always knew I was no good at sports; I just wanted to be your friend and since we are friends now, all of the rejections were worthwhile.” How did it feel to be picked last every single time? And then to come back for the next game, again last picked!

This blog post reaches the end of the quote we have been focusing on from Robert McGhee’s book, “The Search for Significance” – In Christ I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, complete, and Accepted.  All of the rejections meant nothing to Dwight who could say with pride in high school, I Am Accepted.

Dwight and I never had any theological discussions about salvation and sanctification and God’s will – so I do not know how he would feel about being able to say I Am Accepted because he was “in Christ.”  I assume, however, that most people reading this blog do indeed have awareness of how being “in Christ” gives meaning and purpose to our lives. 

I could probably present dozens of Biblical passages which will confirm the thesis In Christ I Am Accepted.  But only one will suffice nicely and powerfully: “Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you, so that God will be given glory” (Romans 15:7 NLT).  I love how The Message handled this verse: “So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory.  Jesus did it; now you do it!”

The pain and shame of not being accepted, and of not being accepting, fuel the offices of psychologists and therapists with a burgeoning clientele.  And why does the human condition of non-acceptance overwhelm our society?  So many reasons not to say with confidence I Am Accepted:  your parents or caregivers did not make you feel accepted; you have suffered trauma which affects the way you see yourself; your past floods you with feelings of guilt; or perhaps you have been taught to see yourself as inferior due to your gender, race, or some other aspect of your personality.

Is there any chance that today you are feeling less than “accepted”?  Is there someone in your life who is sick with the anguish of feeling unaccepted?  “In Christ” is the key and apart from a deep faith in God’s acceptance through our faith in Christ, all attempts at finding human acceptance are ultimately failures leading to more pain, suffering, and an absence of a real purpose for our being and a real meaning to our existence.  So, with joy and encouragement I encourage all of us to thank God daily for our being able to shout to the heavens, “In Christ I Am Accepted.”

[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 am a fanatic when it comes to jigsaw puzzles.  Give me a 300- or 500-piece gorgeous scene puzzle and I will work on it steadfastly until completed.  Last week I finished a 500-piece puzzle, or should I say “I almost finished” the puzzle.  There were four pieces missing from the puzzle’s border which drove me crazy!  I Am Complete means simply there are no missing pieces to the “puzzle of me”; it’s all there.

“In Christ I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, Complete, and accepted” is the quote from Robert McGhee in his book “Search for Significance.”  Today we focus on the idea that I Am Complete, but only if I am “in Christ.”

Ephesians 3 has an amazing message of being whole or complete in Christ.  In verses 17-19 we hear Paul’s prayer that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. . . .so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  Seriously Paul?  You honestly believe that each of your readers can “be filled with the fullness of God”?  Sounds to me like I Am Complete is exactly what happens to Christians who have allowed Christ to dwell in us. 

Sorry if this sounds too simplistic, or too “evangelical” or “conservative.”  My favorite seminary professor John Ralls, who taught me the Semitic languages Hebrew, Aramaic, and Akkadian, told a story about “completeness” that I have never forgotten.  A famous Rabbi was asked by his student, “Rabbi, how best does one study the Torah?”  The Rabbi answered the question, “Turn it, turn it, turn it, it’s all there.”  No missing pieces!

I Am Complete, as long as I am “in Christ.” I actually, and literally, can have all the “fullness of God” inside me.  How awesome a thought is that?  In Exodus 3:13-14 Moses has an amazing conversation with God who had asked Moses to go speak to the Israelites.  Moses says, “so if they ask me who you are what shall I say?”  and next he asks God, “please tell me what your name is.”  God then answers Moses with, “I am who I am.”  The Great I Am has come to be a well-known moniker of God.

The Hebrew for the English words “I am” is the Tetragrammaton (four-letters) y-w-h-w.  Most transliterate it as Yahweh, which morphs into Jehovah as God’s name.  But wait, there’s more!  The Tertragrammaton can also mean “I will be who/what I will be” and it can also mean “I cause to be what I cause to be.”  So when, in Christ, I proudly and confidently claim I Am Complete, all of The Great I Am who spoke to Moses is also living inside me!  In Christ there are no missing pieces in me, I Am Complete!

[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 we consider the next phrase from the quote my friend Roger Peer shared often with me, In Christ I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, Totally Forgiven, complete, and accepted.”  This should be the shortest blog I have ever written.  You may have noticed, if you are a regular here, that each of my blogs are around 500 words.  More than that and the blog becomes burdensome, way less than that and the meaning may be lost.

But really?  I Am Totally Forgiven is like Christianity 101 – we learn from childhood that God forgives us from our sins:  all we have to do is believe, confess, and repent!  Voila! Sins gone!  “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the people who believe in Him?”  (Micah 7:18)

And then there is this Biblical promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (NIV). Jesus spoke to Peter about the woman who had cleaned his feet – while Peter had done nothing when Jesus showed up at his house with dirty feet – and he said, “her many sins have been forgiven – as her great love has shown.” (Luke 7:47).

The “Assurance of Pardon” is my favorite part of corporate worship.  My wife Miran and I proudly assert “we are a two-church family,” attending together both her Catholic church and my Presbyterian Church.  When the priest/pastor says “You are forgiven, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” I never ever ever ever hear those words without lifting my hands open to accept such a sweet and powerful gift from Yahweh the creator of the universe.  In Christ I am Totally Forgiven!  And that’s a fact, Jack!

Indisputable fact, that is if you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:2 – “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” So, it seems that there is a tad more than just believing and confessing if we are to say with confidence, “I Am Totally Forgiven.”  We need to forgive others who have sinned against us.  And that is not so easy as believing and confessing, do you agree?

I have been watching a wonderful podcast called “Become New” by pastor John Ortberg, who is currently digging deeply into forgiveness.  “We live in a hurting world,” says Ortberg, and “hurting is natural, but forgiveness is supernatural”.  Here is a link to one of his 11 minute talks on forgiveness:  https://becomenew.com/a-journey-of-forgiveness/?wvideo=q2c1j67gy7&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=278963050&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_MX89Gc7FwE97_KSkAIIiB9CHRS-7GsEbHc0EcaE3m1Th4Px3st-be8Hqm5YybJ4DMiNVyfQdLimJrvi4MnZ4oJrOi3g&utm_content=278963050&utm_source=hs_email&wchannelid=6j8ann7hm0&wmediaid=q2c1j67gy7

Oh my – that was a long link and I hope it works!  If not Google “BecomeNew” podcast.  “Supernatural” means that true forgiveness can only happen with divine assistance since the human condition reaks of weakness.  Only in Christ do I have a chance both to say “I forgive you” and I Am Totally Forgiven.

[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

“Who Am I Really?” was the question we are exploring. The answer – “in Christ I am deeply loved, Fully Pleasing, totally forgiven, complete, and accepted.”  We know about the challenges of “being fully pleasing” to another human, our spouse, our siblings, our parents, etc.; but what does it take to be pleasing to God?  And not just “pleasing” but “fully pleasing.”  Our hope of being able to say I Am Fully Pleasing comes from the fact that this answer to “Who Am I Really?” is only possible if we are “in Christ.”

Of course, this idea just hammers home Merton’s words in his prayer: “But I believe that the desire to please [God] does in fact please [Him]. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.”  This idea in The Merton Prayer struck me so strongly since I had grown up with the belief that I Am Fully Pleasing to God ONLY if I never sinned!

Unfortunately, you and I are constant sinners, and we fall under the biblical rubric that “All [of us] have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23, KJV].  This means that in order for me to say with any sense of honesty and sincerity I Am Fully Pleasing to the Lord, the words of The Merton Prayer above are my only hope!  When I desire, He is pleased!  Amazing, right?

These words, I Am Fully Pleasing, leave no room for being “unpleasing” to God.  I have three suggestions for how we can honestly stand before our Lord with these words on our lips.  First, there is the imago Dei in each of us which means when God looks upon us, He sees His own image, and that must indeed be pleasing to God. 

Second, there is the miraculous gift to us of God’s Son Jesus Christ. 

“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!” (2 Peter 1:3 The Message).  So, according to the Apostle Peter, “getting to know, personally and intimately,” Jesus the Christ, brings pleasure to God.

To me this means a life of constant interaction with the Holy Spirit who is the advocate or paraclete for drawing us near to the Lord.  In fact, the Greek word parakletos is two words which literally mean “called alongside” and came to mean “defense attorney”.  When a defendant is being tried for his crime, as he stands before a judge, the person standing “alongside” – standing right next to him – is the “defense attorney” who advocates for his client.  Likewise, each of us will stand before God on the Day of Judgment, and thankfully, we will not be standing alone, the parakletos will be next to us, advocating on our behalf.  It is no accident that the word parakletos is translated “the Comforter” as one title of the Holy Spirit.  And with such an amazing defense attorney, each of us does have a chance one day to proclaim I Am Fully Pleasing to the Lord my God.

Third, there is this from 2 Corinthians 5:9, again from The Message:  “Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions.” 

In answer to the question this blog has posed, “Who Am I Really?” we see clearly the challenge of living a life focused on intimacy with Christ with “the main thing” being able to “cheerfully” say with confidence – I Am Fully Pleasing.

[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 Am Deeply Loved is the first answer to the question “Who Am I Really?” we are considering from the last blog post.  Even though Merton said in his prayer, “Nor do I really know myself,” I believe he would agree with I Am Deeply Loved and with each of the upcoming future blog responses to “Who Am I Really?”

In reflecting backwards on my life, I honestly cannot conjure up a time when I did not resonate with I Am Deeply Loved.  As a young child I always felt love from my father and mother, our local church, and God who created me and “knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13, NLT).  One of the very first scripture verses I memorized, as most Christians do, is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (KJV).

Since I was part of “the world,” that meant to 8-year-old Stevie that God loved me!  I understood it enough at that young age, so that one Sunday morning I walked down the aisle, made my “confession of faith,” and was baptized. As I came up out of the baptismal waters I knew that I Am Deeply Loved and the source of that love was the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God of the Bible (even though I knew not those words then!).

It makes sense that one who is part of a “church” will and should feel loved by their church.  My Sunday School teachers spent time teaching me about Jesus and his love for me when I was little.  My Sunday School teacher when I was in 3^rd grade was my mother and when I was in 9^th-12^th grades was my father.  The junior and senior high youth group leaders always conveyed to me that I Am Deeply Loved by them, as they helped me see God’s calling on my life which led to attending a Christian College and becoming a pastor.  I Am Deeply Loved poured over me for the ten years that I served local congregations as pastor.  In fact, some members of the Palestine Christian Church in Wolcott, IN, read and comment on this blog regularly, and thus I Am Deeply Loved by them, even these forty years since I preached my last sermon there!  Thank you Palestine!

But all is not “hunky dory” in my life, and there are times when clearly, I was “not deeply loved.”  I can cite (but won’t do it publicly!) family tensions which felt very “unlovable” and a few not-so-nice situations from the church.  Here’s one:  I was doing interim fill-in preaching for a few years while enrolled in my grad courses in Semitics at the University of Chicago (before my law career!).  One Saturday night I got a frantic phone call from the head elder of the church where I was to preach the next morning.  He: “Rev. Denny, we just found out that you are divorced, and our church has a policy that we never allow a divorced person to preach.”  Me: “I am so glad you called, since I have a policy never to preach at close minded and legalistic churches, and if I had preached tomorrow and found out later about your policy, it would have been very upsetting to me.  So, thank you very much for calling.”  Snarky? Yes.  Justified? Yes (IMHO).

The above paragraph notwithstanding, there has never been a day when I Am Deeply Loved by God, the church, and my family has not been felt, and it has never been questioned. May you know in your soul “I Am Deeply Love.”

[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 friend Roger Peer would often answer the question Who Am I Really? in a way I have never forgotten.  In our men’s Bible study group which met weekly for over a decade, he would confidently and joyfully say, “In Christ I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, complete, and accepted.”  (I recall that he had read this phrase in “Search for Significance” by Robert McGee.)

This blog will tackle each of these “identity markers” as a full and wonderful response to the six-word phrase of The Merton Prayer which may be the most vulnerable part of the prayer: “Nor do I really know myself.”  Today’s focus is “In Christ.”  Each of the five characteristics flow from and depend upon being “in Christ.” 

So, what does it mean to “be in Christ”?  The little word “in” is a preposition which always indicates direction, location, inclusion, or activity.  We are “in a tizzy” with worry or fear.  We are “in route” to a faraway location for a vacation.  We are “in the living room.” We wrote a letter “in pencil.”

The word Christ, so well known, is simply a transliteration of the Greek word christos which means every time we say the word “Christ” we are speaking Greek!  But what does “Christ” mean?  Etymologically?  In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) the word christos is used to translate the Hebrew word mashiach which means “anointed one” even though every version of the Old Testament simply transliterates the Hebrew mashiach as “Messiah.”

The New Testament is filled with references to “in Christ.”  Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians with this: “My love to all of you in Christ Jesus” (I Cor. 16:24).  He closes his letter to Philemon with this: “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings” (Philemon 1:23). And there is this: “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ” (Colossians 1:19).

My answer to the question Who Am I Really? is that I am a human being created in the imago Dei, who miraculously now lives on earth inside a corporeal mass of bones, sinews, organs, skin, teeth, eyes, nerves, arms, legs, etc., while at the same time also living in Christ!  I am able to focus on Jesus Christ, listen to his words as recorded in the New Testament, and strive to always look for Christ in every interaction I have with other human beings. 

I often wonder how a person who does not live in Christ could ever have a significant purpose for living, and a meaning for their existence.  When I get up every morning, the first words which cross my lips are these: “this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it,” even if that day includes hurtful medical treatment such as radiation therapy for cancer which I endured for 8 weeks in 2017.

Who Am I Really? Christ is our “north star” which gives our lives direction, location, inclusion, and activity – all of the ways being “in Christ” functions for a Christ-follower. My hope is that you will be blessed richly this week as you focus on Who Am I Really?

[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!

What is the role of wood in the cross of Jesus?  Wood came from a living tree, created by God, it was cut and fashioned into a cross, and as such it was an instrument of death with which the Romans carried out death sentences by hanging criminals on a wooden cross.

One of my favorite New Testament verses is I Corinthians 15:14 and my personal translation of the Greek is surprisingly closer to the King James Version than to any of the modern translations: “If Christ did not rise from the dead, then our preaching is a big waste of time, and our faith is a total waste of energy!” 

Obviously, there can be no resurrection unless there was first the crucifixion.  If He was not the Son of God, and if He did not rise from the grave so that each of us humans could have hope for eternal life, then join me in yelling at the man on the middle cross at Calvary, Come Down From That Cross, We Need the Wood.

So, this whole Christianity gig could be just a big farce made up by 1^st century men who have tricked the world into believing an idiotic bunch of mumbo-jumbo. The famous atheist authors, like Christopher Hitchens, must be right when they call out Christians for believing a fairy tale.

And then there are people in our lives, at least in mine, who take the place of Jesus on the middle cross and tell all the world in subtle and even silent ways, “Look at me, I have the answers to all of your problems, don’t even think about looking for somebody else!  I am your savior!”  To that person, I yell with all my might, “Come Down From That Cross, We Need the Wood.”

Isn’t it interesting to realize that the wood which so cruelly caused deaths, including the death of Jesus, had many other uses which were positive and helpful to humanity.  Craftsmen could shape wood into a chair, a ladder, a table, a buggy pulled by horses, etc.  Let us remember and celebrate these uses of wood, rather than focus on the death machine known as the cross. 

Let us also strive this week to notice when someone other than Jesus has shown up on the middle cross at Calvary, and let us keep a vigilant lookout for others or self, climbing up on the cross that we have made!  If that happens, may we hear loud and clear, Come Down From That Cross, We Need the Wood!

To me, The Merton Prayer, with its powerful authentic honesty, will help me never to become my own Savior or to climb up on my own cross!  After all, who ever heard of a Savior telling his followers “I have no idea where I am going” and “nor do I really know myself”!

[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!