“Little Ministries” for a Lent of Little Things

This Lenten season I’ve tried to keep things simple. I haven’t given up using a pillow or eating bacon, and I haven’t gotten swept up in the newer trend of ‘adding something beneficial’ instead of taking away something superfluous, either. In fact, I probably haven’t been very visibly involved in this Lent at all, but as I mentioned in this post, I have been observing the season in my own way, with a Lent of Little Things.

I have a habit of getting wrapped up in equating my own worth with my ability to be productive, and often that leads down a road that ends exactly opposite from where God wants me!

Trusting not in our own righteousness but in Your manifold grace and mercies.

And the little things this Lent have been my way of acknowledging this truth. I cannot allow myself to get so wrapped up in my own imperfections that I fail to do anything at all for the kingdom. Surprisingly, it turns out that God is much less interested in watching me wallow in self-pity and doubt about being able to ‘do it all’ and much more interested in seeing me turn that responsibility over to Him, and embrace my ability to do something. I joked in my previous post at the beginning of the season that even if I couldn’t do all of the dishes, I could do some of the dishes, and that sums it up nicely.

Of course, human nature being what it is, there’s always the chance of slipping and falling into the habit of saying “I can’t do it all, and I won’t even do what little I can do.” Defeatism is from the enemy, remember this. God is not a defeatist! As my husband preached on Sunday: “We serve a God who doesn’t have a Plan B; He doesn’t need a Plan B.”

I feel as though this defeatist attitude has begun to influence us in the church even into our areas of ministry. We go to church with a vague ‘of course I’ll help out if I’m needed’ attitude, and then fall away from that the moment we step in the door. Do any of these excuses sound familiar?

Someone else is more qualified to do that than I am.

I give money every week for the running of the church; I don’t need to give my time, too.

Retired, young and childless people have more time anyway, let them take these things on.

I have a (insert medical problem) and so I can’t be expected to help out.

Oh, man, I’ve thought all of these things before! But if you plug in the ‘little things’ idea, what you get is a completely different picture!

Maybe I can’t find the time or energy to volunteer with the Sunday School, but I could make it a habit to buy them a set of juice boxes every week when I do my shopping.

Maybe I can’t get to church earlier than I already do to help set up for coffee time, but I could stay an extra 5 minutes after the service to wash up.

Maybe I can’t give much money, or even any money at this stage in my life, but what can I give? Can I offer someone a ride to church? Can I weed the flower bed outside the sanctuary? Can I bring a box of tea? Can I offer to hand out bulletins? Can I re-pot that droopy palm tree in the entryway?

God is NOT a defeatist, and neither should we be! This Sunday is the fifth and final Sunday of the season of Lent - is there something YOU could do this very day, this very minute, right now, that would glorify Him in word or deed?

Lenten prayer update

It just hit me a few days ago that Palm Sunday is this Sunday, which means that Easter Sunday is the next one, which means that Lent only lasts another 11 days.

And there is pretty much no way I can finish my entire list of prayer things in that amount of time.  I just can't.

But I refuse to give up.  I've faltered a bit, I'll admit it, mostly due to a combination of scheduling mishaps and lack of motivation, but I'm determined to do at least a bit more before that glorious Sunday to come!

I've given quite a few things a shot.  Some, like confessing my sins aloud, were surprisingly difficult.  Some, like singing the psalms, were surprisingly wonderful.  I've prayed with acronyms, prayed while laying on hands, prayed for family, strangers and friends, taken prayer requests, and prayed in a variety of different positions.  If nothing else, I've stretched my limits a bit, going beyond grace-before-meals and Oh-Lord-let-me-pass-this-test sort of conversation with the Lord.  Okay, it wasn't that bad before, but there were days when it wasn't far off.

I have noticed some fruit, too.  I am calmer in a crisis.  I tend to default to prayer a bit more often.  Scripture speaks to me in a clearer way, and even when it doesn't, it sparks my interest to learn more.  None of these things happen all the time, or even most of the time, but certainly some of the time.  I feel, in a word, more stable.  Wobbly, but less so than before.

So, here we go with the last eleven days.  May they be even more fruitful than the last few weeks.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Day 10

Today I had the opportunity to try 'freestyling' my prayers when David and I prayed for a successful meeting.  It felt very un-pressured, quite unlike more structured prayers.

I also got a note back from a missionary family!  Let's call them the Smith family.  I'm very excited because they gave me some specific prayer requests and I'm looking forward to, along with catching up on my psalms, praying for them.  Expanding my boundaries.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Days 8 and 9

Prayer is a wonderful thing; when everything is going well and you pray daily you feel great! And then things aren't going well or there's stress in your life and prayer seems to fall by the wayside, to be replaced with...well, grace before meals?  And you feel icky.  Unclean.  Unfinished and full.  Make that FULL.

So Day 8, which was Wednesday, I decided to catch up on my psalm singing.  I had 20 psalms to get through, #26-#45 inclusive.  I managed a grand total of one psalm during the day, so that found me, at midnight, about to go to bed and remembering the psalms.  I climbed into bed and took out my flashlight and sang, quietly, in the dark room while the baby slept.  Well, I made it to psalm 30 before he woke up and needed to be put back to bed...and by then it was probably about 1am, and so I called it a night.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Days 5, 6 and 7

Note:  This post was scheduled to go out on time, but then I fell behind.  Life caught up with me.  Our son broke his collar bone and went to the emergency room, David's final paperwork was due to the denomination and needed dedicated effort to finish and send off, and I started a second job as a secretary at a local church.  Prayer is often 'second fiddle' when it is most needed, and that's where I've been the last three days.  Regardless, I'm publishing this post anyway, but I will have to catch up and perhaps re-evaluate where I stand with this project.

I know that it's customary for Lenten observance to be postponed on Sundays because each Sunday is a mini feast day and a celebration.  But I never really agreed with that reasoning, and anyways, my Lenten observance isn't a thing of denial so I went ahead and continued today.

I spent a bit of time looking over my list of things to try, and I think I've been fairly rigorous in my attempt to be open-minded and willing to go where this journey takes me.  Here's a re-cap of the list and I've coloured in the things I've tried so far:

1.  I need to try praying at a certain time, a time set aside specifically for that activity.
2.  I should attempt a 'prayer journal', where I write down prayers and, hopefully, responses to them.3.  I need to try structured prayers.  So this means praying the daily office or other liturgically-based prayers.
4.  Pray prayers found in the Bible.
5.  'Freestyle' my own prayers.
6.  Try praying in different locations, like outside, in designated church prayer rooms, at an alter call, etc.
7.  Praying silently and aloud.8.  Praying using mneumonic acronyms, such as P.R.A.Y (People, Reason, Answer, You) or A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication).9.  Walk a labyrinth.
10.  Pray for a prayer language.
11.  Try prayers in different physical positions; King David prayed lying down with arms outstretched, for example.12.  Sing the psalms.13.  Pray a rosary.
14.  Take prayer requests.15.  Attend a prayer group.
16.  Pray while annointing someone with oil.
17.  Pray while laying hands on someone.
18.  Knit a prayer shawl.
19.  Cover my head to pray.
20.  Try contemplative or meditative prayer.
21.  Pray beyond my geographical boundaries, for missionaries or the persecuted church.
22.  Pray for my enemies.
23.  Research prayer.
24.  Use ecstatic dance or worship dancing.

Today I sang my five psalms, and I prayed my list of requests...and then I started debating what to try next off of the list.  The list, of course, is just a guide; it isn't meant to regulate the Lenten experiment or contain it in any way.  If I feel like maybe I should try other things, then that's just fine, or if I decide that something on the list doesn't 'feel' right, or for some reason isn't possible, then that's also completely okay.

I do feel like I've started with some of the 'easier' options!  I don't know if worship dancing was the sort of thing to launch into right off the bat!  But now that week one is drawing to a close I'm feeling confident and ready to get into something a bit more difficult.  I'm ready to pray outside of my geographical boundaries.  I've started by contacting some of the missionaries that I know and compiling a list of their needs and wants and I'll be focusing strongly on them for the next few days.  In addition to that I'm going to finish up the prayer booties (which are coming along very well) and post a picture of them so everyone can see.  This next week is going to be one of looking outside of myself and my world; praying for those I may never meet and those who are doing God's work elsewhere.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Day 4

Day four, and I have some exciting news!  An answered prayer.  I've been praying for my family, especially those who are not saved, and last night I had a conversation with one of them...where, I believe, they let God into their life.  After I hung up the phone I got down on my knees to pray and then realized....I need to write this in my prayer journal!  It was very, very exciting to make a little mark under the prayer request 'For unsaved family members' and write this person's name in.

This morning I did not get to start my day singing psalms, instead I got to spend it caring for a little boy who fell head-first off the bed and spent the day crying.  Please don't worry, he doesn't have a mark on him and has no sign of concussion, but he's obviously hurt his little self a bit and is moving slowly and is very cuddly.  I think I'm more concerned than he is; he was quite happy to play and laugh and chatter away the whole day as long as I was prepared to sit or sleep with him and nurse constantly.  However, please pray for his swift recovery - and I don't make that request lightly after seeing what prayer could do last night!

I sang my psalms with a glad heart.  And I tried one standing today, instead of sitting.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Day 3

Two words:  Prayer.  Booties.

That's right.  I can't be certain that I have enough time to knit a prayer shawl, I can't be sure I can manage a blanket to donate or even clothing...but surely I can knit some prayer booties.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Day 2

Although I found P.R.A.Y. a helpful acronym to pray with, I didn't want to stop there with trying prayer acronyms; A.C.T.S. is another one I'd tried before, although never with a great deal of success. I find that adoration, often one of the clearest parts of prayer, frankly threw me; I can confess, I can be thankful and I can ask on behalf of myself and others...but I have trouble with adoration.  How does it fit into my daily prayers?  Does God want my prayers to be prefaced by a long spiel along the you-are-wonderful line of thinking?


Here's what http://www.prayerguide.org.uk/ had to say about Adoration:


"Adoration is to adore God, to worship him and to fulfil the commandment to love him with all of our heart, mind and soul. As we spend time in adoration, we praise God for who He is - our Creator, our Sustainer and our Redeemer."


Changing the word 'adoration' to 'praise' helped me to clarify my thoughts about what was being asked of me.  When I think of praising God I imagine specific acts that represent that praise to me, such as singing hyms.  I think, though, that in this instance it would be too easy for me to just say 'well, I'm already singing five psalms to start the morning, that can count as the adoration/praise part of the acronym.'  I needed to find another way to try adoration.


http://www.discipleshiptools.org/  suggests looking over your life and remembering all that God has done for you.  It also goes on to say:


"This (praise and adoration) is about the greatness of God, His incredible omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience, His sovereign nature and rule, and His complete holiness."


Hmmm, that gave me an idea.  I decided to try praising God through the times in my past that I had seen his sovereign grace on a personal level.  I wrote out a short list of events when God's protection was evident in my life; times when without him I would have suffered greatly.  And then I wrote another list of times when I had suffered, and yet all was well in the end, because He watched over me.

As I was preparing for Adoration, I started to think about Confession as well.  I felt comfortable simply confessing whatever sins would readily come to mind when the time came, but perhaps this offered me an opportunity to try another suggestion on my prayer list.


If you start looking into the idea of formalized confession you can quickly get mired in technicalities.  I suppose there are any number of nuances inherant in each denomination's interpretation of the scriptural basis for public or private confession, but for the purposes of my experiment, I don't see a lot of value in delving into them.  I don't believe an intermediary is needed between myself and Christ, nor would I probably be allowed to use one if I did, seeing as I'm not a member of the Catholic, Lutheran or Anglican churches, all of whom offer confession to a priest.  I also can't really use a corporate confessional model, such as the confession and absolution of the Anglican church, because I'm praying solo. 


I ended up finding an excellent beginning at http://www.catholiceducation.org/.  I'll include a quote here:


"...a person begins with a good examination of conscience. We need to hold up our life to the pattern of life God has revealed for us to live. For instance, we take time to reflect on the 10 Commandments, the Beatitudes, the precepts of the Church, and the virtues of prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.


The examination of our conscience is like stepping back and looking at the picture of our life in comparison to the masterpiece of life revealed by God. Remember when we were children, we used to trace pictures. Tracing helped us learn to draw. We would take a piece of plain paper, hold it over the original picture, and then put it up to the window. The light would enable us to trace the original picture onto our blank sheet of paper. Periodically, we had to stop and step back to see if our paper had slipped and was out of kilter with the original or if we had deviated from the lines.
In a similar way, as we live our lives, we are tracing them in accord with God’s pattern of life. In examining our consciences, we step back and honestly assess how well we fit God’s pattern and have stayed within His boundaries."


My confession was going to require a bit more preparation than simply seeing what God brought to mind in the moment.  And so I sat down with my bible and meditated on the ten commandments and the beatitudes and how I had failed in each of them.  It was an incredibly humbling experience.  I may have sat down in the past and listed sins, I don't remember, but I don't believe I had ever sat down with a template before.  I have often confessed sins, I have often felt forgiven, but I have never, to my recollection, sat with a bible and written out specific examples.


With a clear outline of how Adoration and Confession were going to go, I had no trouble with Thanksgiving and Supplication.  I had my list of those who had asked for my prayers in my daily prayer journal and finding things to be thankful for has never posed a problem for me.

And so this morning, when I woke up at 4am with a fussy baby, instead of turning over and going back to sleep after he finished nursing, I went and sat in the livingroom and prayed.  I was surprised at how difficult it was today. I suppose I thought that with a clear outline the praying would be easier; I rarely pray with so much preparation behind me!  And yet it was very difficult.

I will say, though, that confessing your sins aloud, even when it's just you hearing them, is a lot harder than saying them in your head!

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

And that was day 2.

The great Lenten prayer experiment Day 1

Day 1.  I went to bed with no little amount of nervousness last night.  We went out to a local church for a pancake supper and I came home hoping to put up some last minute pictures of Samuel eating pancakes with maple syrup - but my entire computer just, in technical terms, went PTHWT.  The keyboard turned off, then wouldn't start again, and I went to bed very nervous that this forty days was going to be punctuated with me bundling the baby up and hiking to the library for my daily posts.  It was nerve-wracking.  And then this morning David woke me up to say everything was working again. The enemy, I suppose, making a last-ditch attempt to stop the great Lenten prayer experiment.

So, Day one of the experiment.  Well, I already told you I would attempt the daily prayer time and the prayer journal, but after looking over my list again I realized that unless I got a head start on the Psalms I wouldn't be done by the end of the season.  So I woke up this morning and sang five Psalms before I prayed.  Or maybe I should say I prayed five Psalsms, because I had no idea how wonderful this practice was!  Just for starters, I was forced to slow down because to sing or speak aloud takes more time than to read in your head.  I really got a chance to think about the words on the page.  Have you ever read the lyrics to a song and felt very ambivalent to the message the song was giving?  And yet, when you hear that song sung aloud, you understand?  Those words that fell flat have life?  That was my experience with singing this morning - these words were written to be sung, not read.

And then I prayed.  I tried the acronym P.R.A.Y. today.  It stands for Person, Reason, Answer, You.  Hard to explain, so here's an example:  Lord, I lift up Jane (the person) today to you.  She is struggling with temptation (the reason) and I ask that you fill her with strength and a desire to obey your will. (your hoped for answer) Lord let my actions and prayers help her in this time of trial and use me as your instrument as you see fit. (where you stand in all of this.)

I liked it, it kept me on track. I have a tendency to wander with my thoughts and prayers so this was a bit of accountabilty.  And then in my prayer journal I wrote who I prayed for and why and left space to mention prayers as they are answered.  The whole morning prayer time took about 30 minutes.

And that was day one.

The great Lenten prayer experiment pt. 2

nI'm doing my research, preparing for the big Wednesday coming up.  I wanted to start on Wednesday, but there are some things that will need a bit of prep work and I'm trying to get them organized now rather than wait.

And in the interest of preparation I give you...one prayer journal.  Authentically chewed by either a cat or a baby, as everything in my house is. 

Obviously I can't do all things on my list right away.  Some things I can only do once and some are going to have to be longer projects.  I need to start somewhere, though, so the daily prayer time and the prayer journal are my 'Day 1' goals.

Behold, The Zondervan Biblical Encyclopedia.  There are many, many pages under the heading 'Prayer'.  I am getting through them slooowwly.  This falls under the 'Prayer research' section, but it's also somewhat necessary just because, well, I need to know what I'm doing, right?

Yarn!  Am I knitting a prayer shawl?  I haven't decided yet. I'm knitting something, though.  Maybe a prayer dishcloth.  When you wash your pots, remember that I was praying they would be clean.  I really like this idea but it seems overwhelming.  I'm also really trying to stay focused on my ultimate goal here, improving my prayer life, and not get sidetracked.  Knitting might prove to be a sidetrack, I haven't decided yet.

Oh, and I'm getting together names for prayer requests!  Do you have something you'd like me to pray for you for?  You can either leave me a message in the comments, as vague or as specific as your comfort level allows, and I assure you I will add your requests to my little book.

The great Lenten prayer experiment

Here are the areas of prayer I've thought of exploring in the 40 days of Lent.  I'd love suggestions from readers for any other options I haven't covered, even obscure ones, I'm trying to be open minded and push waaayyy beyond my usual boundaries.  To test my limits so my limits can expand!

1.  I need to try praying at a certain time, a time set aside specifically for that activity.
2.  I should attempt a 'prayer journal', where I write down prayers and, hopefully, responses to them.
3.  I need to try structured prayers.  So this means praying the daily office or other liturgically-based prayers.
4.  Pray prayers found in the Bible.
5.  'Freestyle' my own prayers.
6.  Try praying in different locations, like outside, in designated church prayer rooms, at an alter call, etc.
7.  Praying silently and aloud.
8.  Praying using mneumonic acronyms, such as P.R.A.Y (People, Reason, Answer, You) or A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication).
9.  Walk a labyrinth.
10.  Pray for a prayer language.
11.  Try prayers in different physical positions; King David prayed lying down with arms outstretched, for example.
12.  Sing the psalms.
13.  Pray a rosary.
14.  Take prayer requests.
15.  Attend a prayer group.
16.  Pray while annointing someone with oil.
17.  Pray while laying hands on someone.
18.  Knit a prayer shawl.
19.  Cover my head to pray.
20.  Try contemplative or meditative prayer.
21.  Pray beyond my geographical boundaries, for missionaries or the persecuted church.
22.  Pray for my enemies.
23.  Research prayer.
24.  Use ecstatic dance or worship dancing.

As you can see, I'm trying to be open-minded.  Boy am I trying to be open-minded.  Let me tell you, there is no way that if you had told me a few weeks ago that I would be publically announcing that I was considering ecstatic dance I wouldn't have laughed hysterically.  But maybe that's the point of this.  I feel stuck in a rut in my prayer life, and I want to shake things up a bit.  And if that means lying face down on my livingroom carpet hoping to high Heaven that my husband doesn't walk in on his way to the kitchen at five o'clock in the morning and think I've had a seizure...well, maybe I need to do that.  Even if he doesn't ever let me live it down.  Actually I think David will be fine with the whole different positions of prayer option.  Maybe a bit weirded out, but ultimately fine.  Me, I'm worried about the prayer language one.  Oh, and praying all the psalms; that might get me in the end.

Any volunteers for the annointing?

Lenten decisions

So, Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday and as David says "I gotta get me some shroves!"  Actually he doesn't say that, but he does call everything related to that day a 'shrove' (as in pancakes are shroves, with shove syrup, etc.) and I feel justified in putting some shrovey words in his mouth.  It's okay, I'll be shriven soon enough.

I have been thinking about Shrove Tuesday because the day after that is Ash Wednesday...and the start of Lent.  My observance of the Lenten season has been a journey unto itself.  I remember the first time I decided to observe Lent I wanted to make a big sacrifice so I gave up my pillow.  I felt all martyr-y, but it didn't last.  I discovered I cannot sleep without a pillow and I brought it back to bed just days after I gave it up.  Besides, I had given something up for all the wrong reasons; I was looking to cause myself discomfort but never really considered why.

When my husband and I lived in Toronto I tried fasting every Friday of Lent.  It was hard, hard, hard.  And several times I found myself eating without even realizing I had picked up food!  It ended up being a 'daylight fast' and I let myself drink liquids all day, too, just to make it through.  Even so, it was very difficult but again, I felt at the end as though I had tried to sacrifice something without really understanding what I was doing.

Last year Lent fell during the end of my pregnancy and the beginning of parenthood.  I barely noticed it was happening I was so focused on reaching the birth of my first child.  And afterwards I was simply trying to hang on and make it through each awkward, crazy day.

This year, though, I have a little toddler, and no excuses.  I have been a Christian for about five years or so and it is high time I observe Lent properly, trying to incorporate some meaning into it for myself, and hopefully deriving knowledge and maybe even a little extra Christian maturity out of the season!

Naturally, with my planner's mind I launched into a big internal debate that I have every time I think of Lent.  It goes something like this: "Lent is a time for sacrifice and for we Christians to feel what that sacrifice is like.  I need to give something up!  Mind you, I keep hearing about people who actually adopt a new practice during Lent, turning a time for purging into a time of acquisition.  Should I try that this year?  What could I add to my day, though, what do I need to add?  Hippy nonsense.  Lent is for pain!  Or is it?"  And so on.  Trust me, the monologue doesn't get much more interesting than that.

So this year I'm not giving something up.  I'm also not add something.  I'm, well, I'm exploring something.  I looked at my spiritual life and wanted to see what I could accomplish in 40 days that would give me great rewards and fill in some gaps in my Christian education.  The answer I came up with was prayer; I don't have a very creative or even a very rigorous prayer life.  And although I certainly don't expect to be a champion pray-er, or to borrow a phrase I heard once, a 'prayer warrior', I could do a lot better than I do now.  So that's my goal, to improve my prayer life.

How am I going to do it is the question.

I have a couple of ideas, just a beginning list.  I'd love to try a prayer retreat, but of course that's impossible in this season of life so all of my plans have to be achievable.  I also need to keep in mind what I'm doing and why and not get, ahem, off on a wild goose chase doing crazy things rather than focusing on God.  Not that I'm prone to that or anything.  Not at all.

*cough*

So stay tuned.  This should be interesting.  If only to show everyone how not to 'do' Lent.