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My local church encourages all who attend services to wear a name badge.  I love this since in the 15 years I have attended, there are still many whom I have not met.  I enjoy knowing the name which goes with each face.  Check this out from Isaiah 43:1-3a.  God doesn’t need a name tag; He Knows My Name and he knows your name too! 

“But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” [Isaiah 43:1-3, NIV}

On July 26, 2023, I had major lung surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. I felt like I was walking though the blazing fires noted above in Isaiah 43.

After the surgery it took a month to schedule the definitive tests to learn if there was cancer elsewhere in my body, and during this time I told my closest friends that I felt I could soon hear a doctor say I had less than six months to live!  All of the serious perils mentioned in Isaiah 43 above flooded over me while I awaited the testing needed: “when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze!” 

It was other words of The Merton Prayer which comforted me, especially during times when my faith waned and I felt fear: “Even though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Tears of joy filled my eyes last week when my ears heard these words from my doctor: “Mr. Denny, I have nothing for you. The tests confirm you are cancer-free!”  I am now left with two daily disciplines:  first, thanking My Lord God for extended life; and second, asking God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit what it is they wish to accomplish with and through me with each new 24-hour gift of life!

He Knows My Name is worth pondering.  How could it be that the Lord God who created the universe has such a personal relationship with me so that He Knows My Name?  The power of Isaiah 43:3, “I am the Lord your God,” and The Merton Prayer’s opening three words, “My Lord God,” complement each other:  the possessive pronouns clearly mean that God belongs to me and you! 

I need to see name tags before I am confident of many people’s names, but the almighty Yahweh who cast the stars and planets into their orbits actually knows my AND your names, without a name tag!  He Knows My Name should and could bring you and me incredibly wonderful comfort every day.

[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 young missionary recruit was so excited finally to be on the mission field.  He had finished his first year of seminary and had been accepted for a summer internship in Mexico City with a veteran missionary. His first day was spent walking around in the city, talking to people, but with no preaching.  The intern said to the veteran missionary, “This was a very interesting day. There were many opportunities for you and me to preach or at least share our feelings about Jesus.  When do I get to start preaching?”

The veteran missionary’s response has stayed with me for decades.  It is simple; it is powerful.  He said, “Everywhere we went today they marked us as we walked.  They judged us as we talked. There will be plenty of time to preach with words; today we preached with no words.” And then he told the youngster what his seminary professor had taught him decades ago:  we are called to Preach the Gospel, Sometimes Use Words.

So, what is the connection, if there is a connection, between Preach the Gospel, Sometimes Use Words and The Merton Prayer?  I will tell you my answer, but first a qualifier.  I am ordained as a pastor, an elder, and a deacon!  My friend Chuck Foster told me, after my most recent ordination as a deacon, “Denny, you are working backwards, and church janitor is next!”    If anyone should feel comfortable preaching on a street corner to a perfect stranger it should be I; however, it is not I.  And I suspect many reading this blog may feel the same.

The Merton Prayer’s “I hope that I have the desire to please you in everything I do” gives me permission to focus on the “sometimes” of the missionary’s statement.  I am very comfortable using words sharing the gospel “sometimes,” but only with people with whom I have a relationship. Let us build non-superficial relationships with people, and then one day, a person just may directly or indirectly (more likely) open a door for honest and deep discussion, perhaps even, “Please tell me about your faith in Jesus!” 

Preach the Gospel, Sometimes Use Words could be a powerful mechanism for evangelism that just might be way more effective and successful than standing on a sidewalk shouting out scriptures and telling strangers who walk by that they are going to hell unless they repent. That may work for some, but for me the goal is to spend my energy building sincere relationships so that when the questions come, and they will come, I am ready to share the gospel “with words.” My two cents!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   [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!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Greg Laurie, a recent biographer of Billy Graham, said that every single time he sat down to interview the 90-something-year-old Graham, after one or two questions he would hear Graham say, “But What About You?  It seemed to Laurie that Graham could not bear the discomfort of talking so much about oneself.         

Inevitably, Laurie would walk away from each interview session with precious material which would likely make it into the new book he was writing [Billy Graham: The Man I Knew (Salem Books, 2021)].  Just as inevitably, due to Graham’s constant probing Laurie for information about the author, he would always leave the interview sessions feeling that Graham had been interviewing him!

I have known people who could spend two hours at lunch with me and never once ask the question But What About You? And when I left those encounters, I felt empty, unknown, and not at all inclined to have a repeat session with that person. Knowing and being known.  That’s what relationships are all about, are they not?  A one-sided relationship usually withers and dies from “malnutrition.”

And what is the relationship “nutrition” which allows healthy connections with others?  The Apostle Paul laid down for Christ-followers the keys to relationships in his letter to the Philippians: “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too” (Philippians 2:3-4 NLT).  In other words, stop being arrogant and self-centered, and do what Billy Graham always did by seeking to know the other person instead of just focusing on oneself.  But What About You? should be our mantra whenever we are engaging with another person.  Every human has the imago Dei written all over them, in their fleshly and spiritual DNA.  Every person whom God brings across our path is someone worthy of our honor and respect, and But What About You? gets us in a position for authentic and honest connection.

Merton’s phrase“Nor do I really know myself” is the step-off-curb to enter the Philippians 2:3-4 highway.  Often when I recite The Merton Prayer and come to this phrase I just stop, horrified at the powerful truth and implication of those six words.  Focusing on excavating my true self from my omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent false self requires authentic honesty, the hallmark curriculum of The Merton Prayer.

As a trial lawyer, my professional “bread and butter” is asking questions of witnesses to discern their feelings, actions, beliefs, and background.  At times, family members have told me, “You are not conducting a deposition now so stop asking so many questions.”  Even with my comfort in asking questions to witnesses, when it comes to my personal relationships I have to work at focusing on learning about the other person rather than spouting off my ideas, philosophies, etc.

May you engage your significant others this week with humility, looking for chances to steer the conversation away from you with the question But What About 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!

In 2018 on February 21^st the Rev. Billy Graham died.  How do I remember such a fact? February 21^st is my birthday.  To learn that my birthday was his death day has stuck with me since then.   Billy Graham and I share a significant connection around other areas of life as well.

Perhaps the most famous evangelist of the modern era, Rev. Billy Graham had an amazing career which took him around the world.  Many books have been written about him; perhaps the most enjoyable and lighthearted is Billy Graham: The Man I Knew by Greg Laurie (Salem Books, 2021).

For four days in 1971, Rev. Billy Graham packed Memorial Coliseum on the campus of the University of Kentucky.   My father, Gayle M. Denny, worked for months as a member of the Lexington Crusade’s planning committee.  I recall him talking about the upcoming crusade and especially about his first meeting with Billy Graham.  Being in that crusade crowd was a seminal event in my spiritual life as a Christ-follower.

Billy Graham and I both adhered to “The Billy Graham Rule.”  When I was a pastor for ten years with a wonderful congregation, Palestine Christian Church in Wolcott, Indiana, I adhered to this well-known rule.  Billy Graham never met alone with a woman in a closed room, and I always kept my office door open for such meetings.  Mike Pence was widely mocked when he announced his adherence to “The Billy Graham Rule.”  Your opinion of this rule notwithstanding, as far as I know, neither Graham, Pence, nor I were ever slapped with harassment claims!

Some of Billy Graham’s quotes have stuck with me for decades.  My favorite Graham quote is this: “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.”  Our divided and toxic world right now desperately needs this “Grahamism!”

I love the structure of Billy Graham’s sermons; often I heard myself preaching his succinct points and recounting some of his memorable illustrations, which always touched the heart and not just the head!  Then there was his “invitation to come forward and accept Jesus as one’s personal Lord and Savior.”   As people streamed out of the stadium seats, I can see Graham standing still, perhaps one hand on his chin, head bowed, eyes closed, clearly praying fervently for more souls to be saved. 

Billy Graham and I not only shared February 21^st, we both shared a goal of helping sinners claim Jesus as “My Lord God,” the lead words to The Merton Prayer.  Graham to untold millions and millions.  I to dozens and dozens!

[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 sophomore in high school my basketball coach yelled at me during a practice session, “Denny, power up! Don’t be a weenie under the rim! Be strong!”  My coach, Herky Rupp, was the son of a very famous college coach at Kentucky, so when he spoke, we all listened with reverent attention!  I had just been “outed” as a weakling in the eyes/ears of all my teammates. 

The reason his words are with me still?  In my adult life at many various points along the way I have felt very weak, especially “under the rim” (which is where all the rough action happens on a basketball court).  I felt very weak just 14 days ago when I underwent lung surgery to remove cancer!  I have always been much more comfortable shooting a 15-foot jump shot from the perimeter, rather than grappling for rebounds under the rim.  There are others on the team who did the power moves, not me.  And that, of course, is why the coach yelled at me!

Power is something we recognize easily.  The vice-president in our company who handles the staff meetings has power.  The doctor who arrives on an accident scene and starts CPR to save a life has power.  The kid in our tenth-grade class who announces a run for student body president has power. The judge who randomly gets assigned a high-profile case has power. 

Power.  Easily recognized, yes.  Easily talked about, no.  Easily understood, no.  Can you recall a parent instructing you how to obtain power, why power is needed, and actually saying to you Power Up?  Until that day on the basketball court at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky, nobody had ever told fifteen-year-old Steven A. Denny to Power Up.

The Bible is filled with talk about power.  In fact, one can theologically claim that Jesus repeatedly told his followers to Power Up.  We hear the recently resurrected Jesus tell his disciples in Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” and again in John 20:21 “he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” [NLT]. Paul tells us, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-control” (I Timothy 1:17 [NLT]).

Paul tells us to Power Up in the last words of his letter to the Ephesians: “A final word:  Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10 [NLT]).  The Greek word always translated “power” is dunamis, from which we get our English transliterated word “dynamite.”  How vivid is that?  We are called to “get under the rim” and show explosions of energy like an explosion of dynamite! 

So what happened after I was told to Power Up?  Why, nothing short of a miracle for this 6’2” 140 pounder!  I am quite sure that before that week I had never before shown up in the box score after a game with a “double-double,” and surprise, surprise, in the next game I had over ten points and over ten rebounds!  [Don’t be too impressed, since I am also quite sure it never happened again!]

Where in your life do you need to Power Up?  Let us hear Merton’s “and I hope I have the desire to please you in everything I do” as our personal Power Up call.  Be with us Lord as we Power Up to meet the needs before us, which might even include “roughing it up under the rim” and coming out with over ten spiritual rebounds!

[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!

We all have heard the cliché “three steps forward and two steps backward,” which jumps into our brains at those times when we just cannot make steady progress forward!  For the Christ-follower who yearns for the Lord’s leading in their life, there may come days when we indeed may feel that we have made a U-turn and are now headed in exactly the wrong direction. 

The Merton Prayer’s powerful promise that we can have confidence we are being led on the “right road” even though we “may know nothing about it” gives me comfort regularly.  I read recently about a United Nations General during the Korean War whose troops were being run over by the Chinese.  Instead of announcing to the press covering the war that his U.N. troops were retreating, he said we are Advancing In A Different Direction.  I love that!   It so accurately describes how God can lead us on the right path EVEN though it is clearly a different direction than what we had planned on following.

In 1979 Chester Bitterman was a young recent Bible College graduate who signed up to attend Wycliffe’s Summer Institute of Linguistics and become a Bible translator.  He felt called to the South American country of Colombia, a country beset with strife and serious internal struggles for many years. He and his young wife moved into the Wycliffe headquarters in Bogota in 1981.  One day armed guerillas attacked the Wycliffe headquarters and kidnapped Chester after telling witnesses, “If Wycliffe is not out of Colombia in a month you will never see this man alive again.”

American newspapers and news stations regularly reported on the missionary who was lost in Colombia with pleas from the U.S. government for Chester to be returned.  Seven weeks after he was kidnapped his body was found in a school bus with a bullet in his chest.  He was a martyr and his testimony for the Kingdom of God lives on today.  The most amazing headline of all read, “Bitterman’s Mother says ‘This was God’s will’.”  Seriously?  I hear of this position by a mother who had just lost her 28-year-old son and I am at once flabbergasted and comforted. 

Flabbergasted since Chester’s death was obviously NOT the plan for his life.  Comforted since Chester’s death as a martyr did indeed send a powerful message.  And then in my “comfort” reaction, I hear the U.N. General’s Advancing In A Different Direction.  The murder of a 28-year-old future Bible translator could hardly be what God wanted for Chester, right?  I preached last Sunday in my home parish, and I shared this story of Chester’s martyrdom.  We would hardly be aware of him or honoring his life some forty years after his death, had this awful and evil event not taken his life in 1981.  His mother’s confidence is so powerful and encouraging, even when events in our life seem exactly the opposite of what God intends.  I am going to spend some future energy watching for how God works in my life, characterized by my Advancing In A Different Direction.

[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 became a Christ-follower at age 8.  My next birthday I will turn 75.  I said that to say this:  in all of my years of being a Christian I have never once been tortured, harassed, mocked, or even laughed at, because of my faith in Jesus.  I read of martyrs in the book Silence, a historical accounting of the first Christian missionaries to land on the island of Japan and I cringe with emotional reaction.  (Silence by Shusaku Endo [Peter Owen Publishers, 1969])

In the book of Acts I see the martyr Stephen who was stoned to death after preaching a powerful sermon (Acts 7).  He actually asked God with his dying breaths not to hold their sin against the people killing him.  I have a hard time really forgiving someone who lied to me decades ago, so forgiving the guys bashing my head in with stones seems a “bridge too far” for my world!

Is it because I feel guilty not having ever suffered because of my faith?  Or perhaps I am envious of “real Christians” who obviously are far more genuine in their faith walk than I have been!  I can fill up pages of my nightly journal with honest recitation of all of my spiritual failures.  I come away from hearing an inspiring sermon and often have not even made it home from the church building yet before the inventory of my weaknesses is playing on the movie screen of my consciousness. 

The only way out of the above conundrum of conscience analysis is to jump into chapter 12 of Second Corinthians where Paul vulnerably and honestly shared how his weaknesses actually were transformed into strength, When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong.  Listen to Paul’s amazingly vulnerable words in 2 Corinthians 12:10 – “That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (NLT).  Incredibly, Paul equates his “weaknesses” with the persecution which he has received because of his faith in Christ Jesus as his Lord.

As noted above, I have never been “persecuted” for my faith, nor have I “suffered” any “insults, hardships, [or other] troubles” because of my faith in Christ.  Not once.  Not a single time! Only in the “upside down” world of Pauline spirituality can I dare to place my actual weaknesses at the foot of the cross, knowing that in Christ they are miraculously transformed into When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong!  I resonate here with Merton’s “And the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.”

May our lives this week resonate with actions, thoughts, and “desires” that do indeed “please 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!

Every human knows what fear is.  Little children exhibit fear in new situations.  College students experience fear when called on in class. In the seconds before our car crashes, we know fear. When we are sitting in a hospital emergency room, we know what fear is.  So, how do we react when we hear the Apostle John say to us, “There is no fear in love [agape], because perfect love [teleia agape] casteth out fear”? [I John 4:18 KJV].  I imagine each of us wants Perfect Love Casts Out Fear to reign in our lives.  So how do I get “perfect love” into my life, and what is “perfect love” anyway?

The bible is literally filled with examples of human beings facing fear.  The Psalmists repeatedly address “fear.”  Psalm 23:4 may be the most famous “fear” passage: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” [NLT].  Psalm 27:1 is my favorite on fear: “The LORD is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid?  The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?” [NLT].

Many times Jesus talked about fear with his disciples, and thus to us also.  They were terrified in the middle of a torrential storm on the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus says to them, “Don’t be afraid.  Take Courage, I am here”. [Matthew 14:27 NLT].   After the resurrection, when Jesus shocked them by appearing suddenly to them in the upper room, he said, “Peace be with you. . . Why are you frightened?” [Luke 24:36, 38 NLT].

When I am tempted to fear, my heart often zooms to the I john 4:18 passage quoted above from the King James Version.  Hear the same verse from a popular paraphrase: “There is no room in love for fear.  Well-formed love banishes fear.  Since fear is crippling, a fearful life –fear of death, fear of judgment – is one not yet fully formed in love” [The Message].  I love how The Message has handled teleia agape: “Well-formed love,” and “fully formed in love,” both of which grab the true sense of teleia which involves mature, healthy, whole, genuine, not at all visible in our English word “perfect.”   Where there is fear, there can be no teleia agape, since Perfect Love Casts Out Fear!

I believe teleia agape comes into our lives when we focus on the nature of God’s love for us.   His love to the world is our model for how we ought to love those around us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” [KJV].  God’s love for us was perfect in the full sense of teleia. Too often, I confess and invite your honesty here, my love for people in my life may have that sneaky little quid pro quo lurking under the surface:  so…what will it get me in return for my doing XYZ?  Not hardly true agape, much less teleia agape. 

The Merton prayer reaches a powerful crescendo with “Therefore, I will not fear!”  Merton knew, and stated clearly, that since God is “ever with us” and since God “will never leave us to face our perils alone,” we may indeed say with confidence, “I will not fear!”  Merton’s words also reflect the words of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee quoted above: “Don’t be afraid, take courage.  I am here.”  This week, as you analyze the love in your heart, may you reach for teleia agape and may you enjoy the incredible blessing of Perfect Love Casts Out Fear!

[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!

Last week the world watched in horror as a very small submarine with five human explorers over two miles beneath the ocean surface was “lost.”  The news organizations maintained a constant count-down of how many hours of oxygen were available.  I confess to following this story with a certain amount of ghoulish and unpleasant curiosity:  the image of five people fighting each other for a life-saving breath of air is exactly the high-drama effect the news media sought.  It sure worked on me:  now, only 15 hours of oxygen left; now only 12 hours of oxygen left, etc.

But then we learned the most horrible news:  the submarine had imploded on the ocean floor right next to the ruins of The Titanic.  All five were killed instantly.  Pieces of the submarine were found on the ocean’s floor and none of the five bodies were recovered.  Sadness for the families of these five flooded my soul, but for some reason I kept thinking about what their last thoughts must have been.  Sheer utter panic? Disbelief? Calm resolutions?  Anger?  Helplessness? Hopefulness? Thoughts of eternity? Thoughts about God?

I next heard myself asking, “What Will Be My Last Thoughts?”   I ran through my memories of the people I – as their pastor – had been with for their last breath.  What did they think about in that nanosecond before they took their last breath?  I wondered about what my father was thinking when he took his last breath as his four children stood at his bedside.  Have you ever asked yourself What Will Be My Last Thoughts?

I would like my last thoughts to be noble, or at least focused on God, whom I hopefully will be meeting face to face very soon after that last breath.  Knowing my penchant for a snappy turn of phrase, I could hear some final thought samples like these: “Steven this is it, you are going to meet your Lord soon!  Don’t say anything stupid!” or “Come on God, I need more time on earth so I can finish another book which will honor you!” or “Here I come God, please let me in!” or “This is it; I am saying goodbye to my family and to earth!”

It was the above exercise of thinking through what I may say or think as my “final thoughts” before death that led me to realize that I can no more plan my final thoughts than I can fly to the moon!  Another phrase of The Merton Prayer grabs me right here: “Nor do I really know myself.”  To me, this is the most profound phrase of the amazing Merton Prayer, since honest reflection confirms its truth.  The publisher of my book, Greg Pierce, crafted the subtitle to the book, “An Exercise in Authenticity.”  Short, succinct, spot-on accurate.

We need only reflect on two scriptures to know that Merton’s words are confirmed by God’s words.  The Apostle Paul, in the most authentic self-assessment in Scripture, says,“I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it.  Instead, I do what I hate” [Romans 7:15, NLT] and the Prophet Jeremiah, who was quite the failure as a Prophet when compared to Isaiah, said in brutal self-honesty, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?” [Jeremiah 17:9, NLT]

So, What Will Be My Last Thoughts? is something every one of us will face.  May God grant us peace around this as we strive better to know Him and to know ourselves!

[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!

This weekend Americans celebrate Father’s Day.  I do not know if other countries also set aside a special day each year for people to pause, reflect, and remember our earthly fathers.  My wife Miran’s South Korean culture celebrates “Parents Day” every May 8^th.  This 2023 Father’s Day carries a special meaning for me, since my father’s 110^th birthday would have been last week on June 9th, and 30 years ago my father passed from this earth while all four of his children stood at his bedside. Join me for a moment as we think about Our Father On Father’s Day – both our earthly and Heavenly Fathers.

I really miss my father, Gayle M. Denny, a self-made man with one year of college who survived the 1929 depression, and who rose from stocking shelves in the basement to CEO of Transylvania Printing Company in Lexington, KY, where he spent 43 years. The father of four, he surely had a way with words, many of his words cracked us kids up, and many made us think way deeper than before.  When I stood privately with him a month after experiencing divorce, he cried with me, hugged me, and said, “God loves you son, and I love you always, so don’t ever forget that you are never alone.”  My dad’s unwavering Christian faith journey, I am sure, played a huge role in keeping me on the right road.

And there were these goofy ones, the ones we called his GMD-isms (after his initials): “Get out of bed and let the stink blow off of you;” “Why are you still in bed, don’t you know that all our relatives died in the bed?”  And this gem, when confronted with bad drivers on the highway, “Cows could drive better than this guy; they ought to let cows drive instead of him!”

On vacation at the Grand Canyon, when the Native American dance show was over a half hour late in starting, my dad jumped up in front of the restless crowd and hollered, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s bring them on with a big hand!”  The show started and I was so proud of his courage. 

One more GMD-ism, and this one lives on in infamy in the Denny Family lore.  In a restaurant where our whole family had gone through a cafeteria line for our food, found a table, sat down, and had started to eat, when a waiter appeared to my father with these words, “Three waiters, sir.”  My father was flummoxed, had no idea what this was about, and he actually said privately to us after the head waiter had left, “Well, I guess he was big enough for three waiters.”  All of us, while trying not to laugh out loud at my dad’s “big enough for three waiters” comment, cringed with embarrassment at this obvious request for a tip, since three of his wait staff had carried our family’s trays of food!  I truly hope the man was given a tip, but my eight-year-old’s memory fails me here as I suspect I did not continue watching. My older sister does not recall if our dad gave a tip.

My dad was a great letter writer, all by hand.  I am aghast at the fact that I never saved any of his letters!  What a treasure trove those handwritten letters would be; hindsight is always 20-20, right?

I think about Our Father On Father’s Day and my mind goes to when Jesus taught his disciples about prayer. He told them, “Pray like this:  Our Father in heaven” [Matthew 6: 9, NLT].  By using the first-person plural pronoun “our,” Jesus gives us full consent to ownership of his Father.  In fact, he includes himself in the word “our,” so that we, along with billions of others, may have that same kind of personal relationship with God.  I am reminded of Chapter One in my book where I focused on the opening three words of the Merton Prayer, “My Lord God.”  Jesus used the plural “our” and Merton used the singular “my;” both of which connote ownership.  How cool and comforting is that! 

May Our Father On Father’s Day be a blessing to you as you connect with both your earthly father and your Heavenly Father.  Like my dad said, “God loves you always and you are never alone!” 

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