When I can’t sleep, My thoughts turn to you. Sometimes, I think of you Through many dark night hours. I remember how you’ve helped me. And there on my bed, I start to sing, Enfolded […]
Tag: Prayer
Reason to pray #13: To bow before the King
Give it up for Yahweh, folks. Give it up, Applauding his graceful beauty, Applauding his athletic strength. Give it up for Yahweh! He deserves every bit of glory we can heap on him. Don’t show […]
Reason to pray #10: Because we believe
Yahweh’s faithful character Can be seen in all he does. It makes his words believable — Always true, Always making things right. For Yahweh loves when relationships Are made right, Loving it when justice prevails. He […]
Reason to pray #8: To articulate our sorrows and losses and move toward gratitude
I need some kindness now, Yahweh. I’m in a dark, dark place. I can hardly see, My eyes blurry from crying. My body aches from stress. … Sorrow devours me. (Everyday Psalms, Psalm 31, page […]
Reason to pray #7: To articulate our fears and move toward trust
My nightlight for my night terrors. My body guard in a dark alley. That’s Yahweh, Canceling my fear. My life’s safe house, That’s Yahweh. Remind me again Why I should fear anyone. (Everyday Psalms, Psalm […]
Reason to pray #5: To say thank you for all that is true & good & beautiful around us
Loose your lungs! Get loud for Yahweh, all earth. Give yourself to Yahweh without holding back. As you sing, You’ll find yourself In his Presence. … Every day is Thanksgiving for us. Every day we […]
Reason to pray #4: To express our emotions
Feelings black and bleak Weigh me down like a ton of bricks. From dawn to dusk I wallow in self-pity. Getting out of bed is impossible. I can barely move Without searing pain shooting through […]
Reason to pray #3: To reorient ourselves toward others
Quit the me-first life. A good life is the best life, A forever life. It’s a caring-for-others kind of life That makesYahweh smile, That he never Rejects, That he establishes forever. Me-first families are a […]
Reason to pray #2: To reorient ourselves toward God
Listening toYahweh leads to the best kind of life. Even at night, he speaks to my heart. I orient myself straight toward Yahweh. I don’t need to look anywhere else for support, He’s right there. […]
Reason to pray #1: To rediscover ourselves when we get lost
My own heart Is a mystery to me, But you know me inside and out, Yahweh. Nothing is hidden from your eyes. (Everyday Psalms, Psalm 139, page 313) I get lost. Often. I’ll be listening […]
Why pray?
A friend asked the question, “Why do we pray?” I’m not sure what was behind the question, but I decided to take it seriously. If I’m honest, there are times when praying feels like a […]
Time for the moon & time for God
My daughter and I were having a conversation about solar and lunar calendars. Yes, I know. It’s an odd topic for conversation. But don’t most of our best conversations have their odd elements and strange […]
The Naughty List meets Psalm 87
Some people rub us the wrong way. And in some cases, they’ve been rubbing us the wrong way for a long time. That history pulls us into negative patterns like ruts in dirt road. It’s […]
Why pray? 33 reasons why I pray
A friend recently asked the question, “Why do we pray?” I’m not sure what was behind the question, but I decided to take it seriously. If we’re honest, there are times when praying feels […]
The most basic prayer we ever pray
Opening prayer Here I am, Lord. I want to be fully present to you — all of me faced toward you, oriented toward you — so that I might fully engage with you. Be fully […]
Psalm 77
(Worship leader: This Asaph psalm is a kind and needed companion during depression.) I prayed my voice hoarse. With tears, I called to God, Needing him to hear, Needing him to help. My soul was […]
Psalm 64
A rendering of Psalm 64, a plea for God to intervene against the kind of people who con old people out of their retirement savings and other forms of injustice.
Psalm 41
Aiding the hurting, The helpless, The homeless Is the best kind of living. And Yahweh takes care Of care givers When they need it most. Yahweh takes of the side Of people who live this way. […]
Psalm 42
Like a dog At an empty water dish, Parched, That’s me, So terribly thirsty For God. My soul is dehydrated, Chapped and cracked, Empty of God — The bubbling, Refreshing, Life-giving God. Where can I go […]
Psalm 40
A rendering of Psalm 40, where David remembers God’s faithfulness in the past and asks for it again in his current problem.
Psalm 32
A rendering of Psalm 32, a David psalm, combining prayer and earned wisdom, stemming from confessed sin after a time of foolishly hiding it.
Psalm 27
A rendering of Psalm 27, a prayer in the darkness, resetting the imagination from fear to God.
Psalm 5
(Worship leader: Use a soulful sax on this one. A David psalm.) I need you to hear me, Yahweh. I need you to hear me out. You’re my King, So hear my plea for help. […]
Psalm 119 (A is for Aleph)
A rendering of Psalm 119:1-8, where each verse begins with the Hebrew letter aleph and delights in God’s life-giving words.
Psalm 12
A rendering of Psalm 12, a prayer for help in the surrounding culture’s war of words.
A user’s guide to having a soul
I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul,” for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is […]
Thirsty for God
The ten-mile run was under the pummeling heat of the central Oregon desert sun, some of it slowing to a hands-and-knees scramble up 45-degree inclines. Interspersed throughout the race were numerous obstacles, several of which […]
Striking the Rock
“Don’t strike the rock!” The hand-written note was taped to my desk where I would see it every day. I was pastoring a congregation going through significant change and I knew that with the pushback […]
Restoring a prayerful imagination
Your imagination is the most important part of who you are. Imagination and soul are deeply integrated, giving you personality and making you unique among all humans throughout history. Without imagination, there is no “you,” there […]
Uncensored prayer
I’m a heretic. There are things I believe about God which are wrong. But they’re wrong in all the right ways. You’re a heretic, too. There are things that are true about God which are […]
Entering into the Big Story in prayer
There are some stories other people have told me that are so vivid in my imagination, it’s as if I was there, as if those things happened to me. My wife tells a story about […]
When I feel far from God
There are times when God seems just about as far away as possible. I feel alone and even with crowds around me, the world feels empty. There are times when God feels as close as […]
The problem of perspective
Living behind my eyes and ears, I am stuck with seeing and hearing the world from my limited perspective. Sometimes, I’m able to add my perspective and help others see things more clearly. But too […]
Sleeping in the face of fear
Life is hard enough with all of its pressures and demands from outside of our homes, but when the dividing lines which fracture our lives run through our families, the stress can break us. The […]
Hey God! Can you hear me?
Occasionally, my daughter will call me by my full name. Generally, my kids call me Papa, but when I hear her say my full name, I know that she’s been calling for me for a […]
A prayer for when I’m tempted to hedge my bets with God
Growing up as the youngest kid in a game-playing family, I had to learn to be strategic from a very early age just to survive. I learned well. The tile-based game Carcassonne is one of […]
Psalm 5 — The God who hears & the words we speak
The first worship song that lodged itself in my heart was the Maranatha version of Psalm 5:1-3 from the early 1980s. Its minor key longing echoed inside of me, stirring a yearning for God that […]
The importance of boredom
Something unexpected and disturbing happens quite often when people gather around a loved one who is dying: They get bored. In my work as a part-time hospital chaplain, I've seen it many times. In response to […]
Psalm 149 — a song in bed & a sword in the hand
Prayer easily becomes rote and formulaic, even when we try to be spontaneous. I hate that about myself. I quickly and easily fall into ruts where I’m pretty much praying about the same things in […]
Prayerless worship & worship that leads to praying
As I’ve spent time with different churches, I’ve become aware of how prayerless evangelical worship has become. By stripping away liturgical elements, many of our gatherings have ended up without much depth in prayer at […]
What are you anxious about? Jesus is praying
There are a lot of things I pray about. And a lot more than I never pray about. In fact, there are plenty of things that are major concerns for me that I never petition […]
Two kinds of knowing — one informs me, the other transforms me
“The boy was frightened, and tried to say a prayer, but he could remember nothing but the multiplication table.” — Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen I am a child of the information age. I have […]
Comprayning
Uh oh. I think I just might be a comprayner.
Why don’t I pray about some things?
We were sitting at the table following dinner and the conversation turned to why we don’t pray about some things, including some of our significant and life-changing decisions. And as we talked, I was struck […]
Got silence?
The fruit of silence is prayer; The fruit of prayer is faith; The fruit of faith is love; The fruit of love is service; The fruit of service is peace. These are the words that […]
A back-to-school prayer
Jesus, as you sat in synagogues and walked Galilean roads, you were called “good teacher.” As our Teacher, watch over and inspire school teachers this year. May their words be true yet humble. May their guidance […]
Psalm 131 — from ambition to contentment
I am an ambitious person, with hopes and dreams for myself. I am a true American, pursuing my own happiness. My heart isn’t quiet. It’s in turmoil, boiling with my ambitions. Unsettled by my striving, […]
The Lord’s Prayer — insistently passive praying
The Lord’s Prayer offers us an absolutely radical approach to God that even 2,000 years of having it as our most basic prayer still subverts and reorients the lives of those who pray it. Sadly, the […]
The Lord’s Prayer — foundation for our praying imaginations
When my friend Scott began following Jesus a few years ago, prayer was a new idea for him. In fact, the thought of it was somewhat terrifying. How do we approach the Master of the […]
Political angst & Psalm 58
Politicians have always been corrupt. Not all of them are, of course. But always, God’s people have struggled under the weight of evil leaders. Always, the presence of the powerful who use their power inappropriately […]
A litany for campers
For the setting up of tents and the lighting of the camp fire, We give thanks to the Lord. For the unceasing murmur of rivers and the cooling of feet therein, We give thanks to […]
The vacationer's prayer
God of creation, God of rest, God who guides, God who protects, Lead us on this vacation journey. Keep us from harm on our travels, as we step out of our safe routines; Keep us […]
The importance of anger
Some baristas are sages, masters of coffee and poignant tattoos. A barista at a cafe I used to frequent had a tattoo with the words “the upside of anger” wildly emblazoned on his forearm. And […]
God in the in-between
We tend to focus on the big events, the landmark moments, the photographable experiences. With our kids, it’s the first day of school, scoring the winning goal, getting baptized, performing in a play, getting dressed […]
18 things every pastor and worship leader needs to consider
1. Worship without silence leaves no room for awe. 2. The words “cool” and “pastor” don’t go together. For those who are trying: Stop it. (This applies to worship leaders, too.) 3. Prayer doesn’t need […]
At the center of God's heart
Lord, forgive me for forgetting those you love. Forgive me for hearing the Scriptures as if they were all about me and my salvation and not about you and your reconciling redemption of what is […]
Ask more questions
My purpose in life is to ask questions. I was with some friends at our Table group recently, considering a passage from John’s gospel. After we’d made a number of observations about the passage, I said […]
Faith is a continuing conversation
This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to listen to a friend of mine (also named Pete) preach. He started the sermon with a clip from a movie we’d seen together several years before and […]
Finding the purpose in our suffering
Pain is one of the most personal things any of us ever experiences. Whether physical or emotional, pain has the ability to focus our attention unlike almost any other human experience. This past week, I […]
The God who doesn't shame us for having questions
Some friends and I were sitting around the dinner table, talking about Thomas. The Bible calls him The Twin, but we’ve settled on calling him The Doubter. Poor guy. Thomas has a bad rep. Partly, […]
Why we ash & why we fast
It’s Ash Wednesday. It’s one of those holy days with which I have an odd relationship. I went to St. Monica Catholic High School as a Protestant. My Dad had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church […]
The not-knowing of being a parent
“So, Mom, you raised five kids. What did you learn?” We were sitting in the small family room of our tiny one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver. My parents had come more than 1000 miles to see […]
Prayer is simply keeping company with God
Every now and then I come across a book where the title alone is enough for me. In fact, when I read it, I discover that the rest of the book is really just helping […]
Praying the news
I’m a bit of a news junky. I come by it honestly, being the son of a news junky father. But living in this new era of being always connected to sources of information through […]
Plugging the holes in our spiritualities
A friend texted me recently about a deeply frustrating conversation he’d had with a client earlier in the day. His language was colorful. Workplace frustrations are a common experience of pretty much everyone who has a […]
I don't care how you feel. Just do the right thing.
As a parent, one of my jobs is getting my kids to do things they don’t want to do, because they simply need to do them. It’s a frustrating job, but we parents do it […]
Parenting is a long goodbye
The oldest of my four children is graduating from high school in a couple days. When he moves out of our house to attend University of Portland, he will be two weeks short of his […]
How to read the Bible, part 3 — Pray — I speak back to the God who is speaking to me.
It’s only polite to listen to those who speak to us. It’s also impolite to remain silent when someone has just tried to engage us in a conversation. When someone speaks to me, I respond. […]
Preaching that leads to praying
Preachers gather compliments, most of which are merely polite: “Good sermon, pastor.” But one of the ones I cherish most was both simple and sincere: “You’ve taught me how to pray.” Early on in my […]
Worship that misses … on purpose
If every song and scripture connects with you in worship, it might be time to try another church. If what is included in worship is only as wide as your current experience, there’s a real […]