prayer

This weekend's theme will be prayer. I've been thinking about prayer lately, especially how we often use prayer as our fallback position in a crisis. I think we (all people, everywhere) are probably in crisis most of time, we just don't often realize it. Certainly it is easier to recognize in third world countries, where just trying to survive is an everyday reality. During our times of crisis, when danger has clearly crossed the boundaries of our comfort zone and after we've exercised our options of trying to keep things under control then finally, maybe, we'll turn it over to God. This can be a giant leap on our faith journey. Recognizing we're in crisis and that we're not going to be able to "fix" it, is the first step. But the crucial step is not simply crying "uncle" at all the crap the world can throw at us. It's not just giving up, but giving it up to God. To pray is to hope. To pray is to have faith that God is going to save the world.

Even though prayer has been around me all my life, I feel like a prayer newbie. It did take a crisis I could recognize to propel me along my faith journey and I find that more and more I want to be in prayer, but I still have difficulty finding the time and getting focused. I've found some online resources that I think will help me:

pray-as-you-go - daily audio-guided prayers
sacred space - daily web-guided prayers

show mercy

I think mercy is a difficult concept to grasp. In some bible translations instead of the word mercy you will see pity. For me, the word pity has the connotation of feeling sorry for someone in a looking down your nose kind of way. I don't think that's what God had in mind.

Others like lists that specify seven acts of mercy that will help you to keep the two great commandments (love God and love one another):

• corporal acts of mercy


• spiritual acts of mercy

The problem with lists is that you either think you can check everything off and you're done or you think the list is so long and involved that you don't even know where to begin.

So I'd like to propose a definition inspired by a song written by Sting. Showing mercy is sending your love into the future. It's an attitude in synch with the way you live your life everyday. It's putting your love out there and not expecting anything in return.