Prayer

I hate asking people to pray for me.

I know that seems bizarre, but I really do. When I was little, I could always come up with something during prayer request time in Sunday School, but back then, we all did because we thought we had to. We spent many Sundays praying for the Yankees. It didn't seem to help.

As I've gotten older, I developed this idea that I shouldn't ask people to pray for me. I have no idea where that idea came from. It became fully ingrained into my way of thinking, to the point where I felt guilty if I asked someone to pray for me. I felt like it was almost a spiritual form of whining. What right do I have to ask people to pray for me? My problems aren't nearly as bad as Person A, B or C, so I'm being utterly selfish by asking someone else to pray for me.

That started to change when I went to college. I learned that it was, in fact, okay for one Christian to ask another to pray for specific needs. I'll admit, I practically became infatuated with the idea of everyone lifting each other up in prayer. It was so great to know that I could go to others with my needs, large or small, and to know that I wouldn't receive judgment for asking for help. Even more than that, I felt like I could actually do something for people by praying for them. It seemed like such a great idea - since everyone is praying for each other, we can all ask each other for prayer, and no one needs to feel guilty that he or she is "hogging" all the prayer time.

But then something happened. Something changed this year, and I'm not quite sure what it was. Perhaps people consider me to be less trustworthy. Perhaps every one's problems were miraculously solved. Whatever the cause, people stopped asking for prayer. Sure, they would complain about everything from A to Z, but after describing some sort of pain, annoyance or difficult situation, very few people would ever say "So yeah, I'd really appreciate some prayer about that". Maybe it's just part of a "Christian culture" that everyone assumes that if they complain about something, others will interpret that as a prayer request. But that seems like a silly assumption to me. And since no one else seemed to be asking for prayer, every time I asked someone to pray for me, I began to feel guilty again. I kept going to my friends, asking if there was anything I could do for them, or pray about for them, and more times than not, they'd smile and say that no, they couldn't think of anything.

And we wonder why folks call the Church fake.

When Jesus wasn't working, He was praying. And He wasn't afraid to ask people to pray with Him - even though the disciples fell asleep, Jesus still kept asking them to pray.

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:13-16, NIV (emphasis added)

I'd like to offer a two-part challenge: go ask someone to pray for you, even if it's simply an "unspoken" request. Then, ask someone how you can pray for them. We can't help each other too much.

His Eye is on the Sparrow

I can be very stubborn.

This is not inherently a bad thing, and I would defend myself by saying that I have "selective stubbornness". I am stubborn when I want to be.

Yesterday I learned an important about stubbornness.

Mondays are generally not a great day for anyone. It's the beginning of the week, everyone wishes that they could sleep in, and when the weather is nice, it just makes things even worse. When I first woke up yesterday, I was tempted to just go back to bed. I was exhausted, and did not have any plans for the day. Instead, I decided to get up and try to do something. Not the wisest decision on my part. I could barely get moving, and when I did finally get set for the day, I walked out of the house...and locked myself out. At that point, I was tired, had a headache, was furious at myself for making such a stupid mistake, and then had to walk to my mom's work to get a key because we don't hide a spare anyplace. This, of course, did not help my mood.

By dinnertime, I still wasn't overly happy. We went out to dinner, and as we were sitting in Friendly's, a bird flew into the window. For those who might not know this about me, I really hate to see animals get hurt or be killed. I can't watch movies with animals in them because I'm too afraid that something will happen to the animals. I still cry when Mufasa dies in "The Lion King". To try to eat dinner while watching a bird struggle to recover from running into the window was asking a lot out of me. And it was not like what you see in videos - he didn't just sit up and fly away. It took the bird about 15 minutes to recover. I'm sure most people would have laughed at it, but I was horrified as I watched it struggle to stand up. But eventually the bird did manage to walk away, just fine.

During the course of dinner, I was talking to my parents about my concerns over my summer job. I'm giving music lessons, and it can be harder to try to get new students, especially when there's a major arts center in town. Finally, my mom asked me if I had talked to God about it.

Oops.

In my stubbornness, I had tried to figure out every possible way of getting new students. I was close to the point of throwing my hands up in the air and giving up. I love to teach, but I was pretty sure this wasn't worth it. But I hadn't bothered to bring it up to God. I don't know exactly why - perhaps I felt I could do it on my own, maybe I took it for granted that He'd help, I'm not sure. For whatever reason, I had avoided going to the best resource I had.

This morning, my mom left me a note before she went to work. She said "I was reminded of the song "His eye is on the sparrow, and He watches over me. Remember the bird yesterday?"

If God cares enough to make sure that birds recover after running into glass, He cares enough to help His children when they've run themselves into a brick wall. Just remember that no matter what you're facing, even if it seems completely insignificant, God does want you to bring it to Him.

All I can think of is VeggieTales: "God made you special and He loves you very much!"

Too Many People Grow Up

“Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well I won't do that.” - Walt Disney

Here is my response to an article written by a friend at her own blog: http://wallflower1332.blogspot.com/2009/08/we-grow-neither-better-nor-worse-as-we.html

I refuse to grow up.

I realized the other day that one of the last things in the world I wanted to do was to grow up. All my life, I've been wanting to grow up, be cool, and couldn't wait until I was Samantha's age from the TV show Wishbone. But I think the mere fact that I still make references to Wishbone shows just how much I don't want to grow up. There was a time, back during my freshman year of high school, when one friend told me "You're like a 30 year old trapped inside the body of a 13 year old". And I thought that was awesome! I was already acting like an adult? How cool was that! But I don't want to grow up anymore.

At this point, I should clarify one thing. Just because I don't want to grow up doesn't mean I don't want to enter the adult world. I do! I want to get a job, start a life, have an apartment, travel and see the world and all those other "adult" things. But while I enter the adult world, I don't want to grow up and become an adult.

Because in my mind, growing up is a horrible idea. I'd have to stop sleeping with my stuffed animals. I'd have to actually stick to a certified organizational system, rather than creating my own "organized mess". I wouldn't be allowed to get into shallow, immature arguments with my friends. I would be told to sell my old Nancy Drew books and other childhood favorites. I would be told to not spend so much money at a bookstore - it wasn't frugal. In short - I would have to work, eat, sleep, have only regulated fun times and enter a world where you are supposed to be mature, responsible and grown up.

And to that world, I say nothing. I simply grab my baby blankets, stomp my feet into place and start pouting. Because I will not grow up. I will continue to do crazy and immature things when I haven't had enough sleep and I'm with my friends. I'll continue to sleep with my stuffed animals. I will keep my living quarters as neat or messy as I want. I will have so many bookshelves, and they will proudly display Nancy Drew and Wishbone, right next to Medieval Political Philosophy. I will buy books and read them, pass them to my friends and cherish them (face it - if you've seen my town's library, there's not nearly enough there to keep my interest). I'll continue to do things to show my friends that I care, even when it might not be considered fiscally responsible. I am going to hold on to my inner child.

So I will enter this new world of jobs, taxes, and politics. But while I'll sit and debate topics of controversy, you can be sure that the child inside of me is reading a Nancy Drew story when she should be asleep.


Epilogue (for Ally):
I really should admit though, that I am extremely excited about several leadership councils I'm involved with this year and the opportunity to make a difference on campus. I'm always thrilled when I discover that I can really cook (and not just bake). And I'm also going to be more dedicated to my studies this year, though it's more out of necessity than anything else. My sinkmate is actually going to drag me to the gym to work out with her. Oh, and be careful with the fish ; )

Adding to the Worship Wars

The Church today is caught up in "Worship Wars". This is nothing new or shocking unless you've lived under a rock for 15 or 20 years. Every since Contemporary praise music started to "come into the scene" in a major way, local churches have started "wars" over the music to be played during the services. The Western church has become divided on the issue, starting new churches, making separate services for the various styles, and trying to find compromises that will keep everyone happy, in the same service and the same building.

Up until a few months ago, I saw this as merely a fact of life. People will disagree about music, so play a couple of hymns, a few modern songs, then get on to the sermon. Such an apathetic view might seem shocking coming from a musician. But my church has almost seamlessly made the transition, especially after it somewhat survived a split over money. So music style was never exactly the first thing on my mind during a service.

Then I went to college. (How many stories start with that?)

During the first semester I took a course called "Music in the Christian Perspective". It was an introductory music course, and during the wide range of discussions, morality of music was discussed. We looked at Plato's view, and some other writings. Just today, in fact, a man from my church was discussing the Reformed view of the arts - the arts are not amoral, but moral. Such an idea crossed my mind until MCP. While I don't recall the final outcome of the course discussion, it did prompt me to look into Christian music a bit further.

One day a friend of mine, S. K. Johnson (http://apostello.wordpress.com/) started up a discussion with me about a paper he was writing called "Religion for Coach Potatoes". In it, he points out how worship music today does not force us to use our intellect. Citing Issac Watts, author of many of the great hymns, he writes that "In Watts’ hymns, knowing about God was necessary to understand the concepts being expressed, and thus to be able to sincerely express them in worship." He goes on to say that "his method has a specific goal in mind; acknowledging who God is with clarity and depth, and developing understanding of these divine truths in the soul so that it raises up in worship. Declaring that “God is great” is only worship, if we truly know why we are saying it. This method of worship, as a sequence of understanding and then response, thought and then emotion is all throughout Scripture. Ezra led Israel in worship by first telling the history of Israel up to that point, and then the Hebrews worshiped God for what He had done. Or, as it says in Romans 12, “in view of God’s mercies...worship” (NIV, emphasis added)." He compares that style of worship with the one that we find in our CCM style today. "The songs that have resulted from the CCM industry use very simple language, are often repetitive, and are aesthetically emotional. These songs rely on eliciting emotional responses in order to give the facade of understanding an abstract concept. A worshiper may declare something ambiguous about God such as, ‘You are worthy,’ without having their mind brought to a point of understanding what that means."

Clearly, we had a few things to discuss. Or rather, he had a few things to say which I listened, nodded my head, and thought about later.

One night after Koin, the idea finally began to make sense inside of my head. Koinonia, or Koin as we call it on campus, is a student lead praise and worship session held on Sunday nights. And it is really great. Spending an hour, lifting up praise with fellow students is one of the things I love, whether it be in Koin or when a friend pulls out a guitar and a praise session starts in a dorm room. But one night I left thinking "what have I just done?" My mind had been in some far off place while I was singing the songs. Some of the songs were even about me, what I could bring to God. How much I loved God. But God doesn't need that or want that. He knows that we can't bring anything, and that however much we say we love Him, we fall incredibly short when we try to live out our faith. And the most important thing that hit me was the fact that I hadn't thought during the service. I didn't need to use my intellect, it was all about the emotional rush. i hadn't learned anything about God. And that fact didn't sit well with me.

I saw why it matters. It matters what we sing, because if we're not engaged, if we're not lifting God up, then what are we doing? We're going through the motions, though we've learned to cover it up more than you might see in an Orthodox church. These "Worship Wars" should not be about what music we like to listen to in church, but what music we should or need to listen to during a service.

One of the best articles I have read on the subject is entitled "Durable Hymns" by Donald T Williams, on Five mark of Excellence That Could End the Worship Wars.

"The "Worship Wars" that rage in the church today are nothing new. St. Ambrose was considered an innovator for writing hymns and teaching his people to sing them. The controversy over melismatic textual elaboration in the Middle Ages was (according to legend) settled by Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass. the Reformation started debates over exclusive psalmody and the use of instruments, debates that continue among Protestants to this day, although they are now overshadowed by heated arguments over contemporary praise and worship music versus traditional hymnody."

He puts forth the idea that in order to judge the music of today, we must look at the music of yesterday. The reason the hymns we still have today are considered "great" is because they've endured years of weeding-out. There was bad music when Issac Watts was writing, but those songs have not survived. Williams argues that there are five points of excellence that made the best stand out and survive, and that those are the points by which we should judge contemporary music.

The first is Biblical Truth. The should be a strong emphasis on the words of praise being at least scriptural, if not Scripture itself. The older printed version of hymns would often include the verses that justified the content of the hymn. Can we look at the music we're singing today and find verses that clearly support it? Often times we can, but they are shorter and simple phrases, instead of longer, more complex passages that were once used.

The second in Theological Profundity. We should be using our minds while we worship! Christ even commands us to love and worship God with our minds! One example Williams cites is Charles Wesley's him "And Can It Be That I Should Gain?" Our music today should offer chances for theological reflection.

A third mark of excellence is Poetic Richness. The words chosen should not be so difficult that a layman cannot understand them, but intellectually suggestive and emotionally powerful. An example is the use of the "wretch" in Amazing Grace".

A fourth mark is Musical Beauty. As any music major will tell you, there are rules in music. And those rules simply must be followed, unless you are writing abstract 20th Century music. There are certain tendencies in music that should be used, and others that should be avoided. Melodies and harmonies should be well shaped. And Williams makes one other point - "And where did so many guitarists get the notion that it is somehow cut to avoid ending a song on the tonic chord?". I can understand not ending on the tonic if you are transitioning to another song which resolves the tension, but let's try to land on the tonic a little more often than we do.

The fifth mark is Fitness. There should be a good fit between the well-written words and excellent music. Everything should be appropriate.

Now, I'm sure many will say "Well, Williams is simply the type of old prude who hates all contemporary music and just likes hymns better, and obviously you feel the same way". But that's not the case. We should look for these marks in our music today, and they can be found. There are so many good Christian bands who have rich and powerful music, in a variety of different styles. But rather than just letting anything into our church, we should have discerning taste. This is one of the reasons why I believe it is critical for Christians to have at least some sort of theological background. It is important to be able to discern not only between good and bad, but between good, better and best. Both traditional hymns and contemporary music should have a home in the modern Church.

Reverence

Somewhere along the way something got lost.

When I was trying to describe my experience in the Balkans, viewing the various religions of Islam, Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Evangelical-Protestantism, I just couldn't find the right word to set them apart from the Church in America. A lady at my church helped me out. "Was there a feeling of reverence?" she asked.

Reverence.

I think we've gone way too far in the wrong direction. We've latched on to the fact that Jesus was God made man, and that He is Love. God is Love. And we've created for ourselves a "Jesus is my boyfriend" religion. When He clearly is not. Or as my Bib Lit professor put it "The Bible says that God is Love. This DOES NOT mean that God is some giant mystical Care bear in the sky, just waiting around to love everybody!"

Where's the reverence?

Some people will take a look at those previously mentioned religions and say "well, they're just following the traditions they were taught. It doesn't mean anything to them. But MY relationship (because it's not a religion) means something to me!" But what if that's not the case? Sure, there will always be people who go through the motions and don't believe in what they're doing. But there must be some who believe.

Now, I'm not advocating a return to "the old ways", or simply coming up with some strict traditions to follow for the sake of following them. But what if we approached God with the same reverence they approach either the traditions, or God Himself through the traditions? What if we stopped kidding ourselves by saying "when the Bible says to fear God, it actually means to respect" and admit that we serve the One who created the entire universe - just because He could. He gave us free will - just because He could. The only reason we're breathing right now is because He feels like letting us breathe. Does this sound like a giant Care bear to you?

The book of Hosea beautifully illustrates the contrast in God's love for us. He loves us and pursues us as a husband does his wife - even to the point of paying for her ransom when she has sold herself into slavery. It is a tender, yet powerful love. He longs to have her call him "my husband" instead of "my master". Yet He still says that when the Israelites return to Him, they will do so with trembling. Just because God was willing to send His Son to die because of His great love for us, doesn't mean we shouldn't approach Him with fear and reverence.

Suffering

For whatever reason, the issue of suffering has been on my mind a lot lately. Actually, it seems to be a reoccurring topic in my life during this whole summer. I started out the summer reading CS Lewis' work "The Problem of Pain". Since then, I've watched so many of those dear to me go through trials and tribulations. Or I've heard about people that I hardly know experience pain and suffering, and that would still pain me as much. When I would sit back and survey the whole situation, it was staggering (and it still is). And this got me wondering that very typical question - why? Maybe not so much as why God allows it to happen, or why it happens to good people, but why it all seems to happen at once. These people have enough battles to fight - why are there more?

And I'm forced to sit, minutes away or miles away, and simply watch and pray. I wish I was so much closer and that there was more than I could do. Of course, I realize that it's all up to God and I try my best to trust him, my hugs and words of encouragement surely couldn't ruin His grand scheme.

I also begin to take survey of my own life. I've been through all sorts of experiences, some wonderful, some painful. Is this supposed to be the eye of the tornado? Since my life isn't crashing in, am I just waiting for something to happen? Should I be bracing myself for another disaster? If things are so awful for those I know, things cannot stay safe for me very long.

But then the words of CS Lewis came to mind. (And if you read my last post, this quotation will be a repeat)

"The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying degrees, from the cruelest martyrdom down to a self-submission of intention whose outward signs have nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary fruits of temperance and 'sweet reasonableness'."

We cannot judge others, nor ourselves, by the outward signs of suffering. The battles that Christ has given us are all different to the different individual. We are not all called to physical sufferings - for many, the internal tribulations are enough. We cannot wish for anything different.

I have also been reading through Ezra, and a verse particularly struck me out of the narration. After they rebuilt the temple of the Lord, it says that "no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away" (Ezra 3:13). That got me thinking. The reason the noise was heard so far away was because there was both shouting and weeping. Both joy and sorrow. Perhaps that is how the body of Christ is to function - the message will get out louder, not when everyone is suffering, or when everyone is prospering, but when there is a balanced mix. And if that is true for the body, than it is true for our own lives.