dual personalities

I have to say, I was pretty excited by the safe return of those stranded astronauts by SpaceX. They made it look so easy. There was even a pod of dolphins there to greet them! High fives all around.

Meanwhile, we are racing through March, aren’t we? I had a busy day yesterday getting ready for a busy day today (and tomorrow). I made a to-do list. I crossed off items–very satisfying. I wrapped up presents for DN whose birthday is next week so that daughter #1, who is driving to Mahomet tomorrow to visit her sister et al, can take the presents plus some other stuff for their house. My sister is also driving to Maine to see her new grandson. So prayers for travel mercies all around.

Today we remember our beloved Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, who was burned at the stake on March 21 in 1556 for violating heresy laws revised under the Roman Catholic queen Mary I, known appropriately as Bloody Mary. He put the English Bible in parish churches, drew up the Book of Common Prayer and composed a litany that remains in use today.

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we thine unworthy servants
do give thee most humble and hearty thanks
for all thy goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all men.
We bless thee for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for thine inestimable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

I surprised my Presbyterian community group recently by reciting the General Thanksgiving from memory–after a reference by Saint Paul to unworthy servants in 1 Corinthians–and I said, well, I prayed it for 50+ years, I ought to remember it! Of course, this prayer comes from the Morning Prayer service (Rite I) which is hardly said anymore as Holy Eucharist is preferred every Sunday. But some things just stay in your head and I am thankful for Thomas Cranmer and his beautiful prayers (with much of the wording lifted from the scriptures).

So say a prayer of thanks for rescued astronauts, martyrs to the cause, travelers everywhere, and all of us unworthy servants.

Ida: “Oh, hi Mom, I’m just sitting with Katie.”

My mother was a very private person. She would never have asked anyone to pray for her. In fact, she kind of felt that she shouldn’t even bother God with her problems. She should deal with them herself. This is bad, non-biblical theology and it took me years to overcome my own reluctance to ask for help.

When my son had cancer, however, I asked everyone I knew to pray for him–Protestants, Catholics and Jews. He was on multiple prayer lists all over town. When his twins were born at 27 weeks I again went begging for prayers. When they pulled through, a devout Catholic friend who had been praying said it was a miracle, but the look on her face said she couldn’t quite believe it. Well, believe it.

Then when I had cancer the same Protestants, Catholics and Jews prayed for me. It helped me enormously knowing these friends were holding me up in prayer.

They prayed for daughter #1 when she wanted to move back to Missouri and again when she was looking for a new job a year ago. We have been praying for daughter #2 and her family to move closer to us and I am confident we shall see that come to fruition in the not-too-distant future. “The right job at the right time. Thy will be done,” as one friend said.

Life is hard. Things go wrong—in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. When they do, it is important not to bottle up your stress like my mother did. Share it with God. Share it with your Bible Study Group, your pastor, your friends.

I am no prayer warrior, but I know some women who are. Indeed, Calvinists are great ones for prayer. And they do not pray from a book. I am working on it.

Never forget that God is active, present, and involved in your life. He is always working for the good of those who love him. 

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, ² saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. ³ Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ ⁴ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, ⁵ yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. ⁷ And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? ⁸ I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Luke 18:1-8

Keep praying. Pray in the good times as well as the bad. As Corrie Ten Boom said, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”

(The painting is The Prayer before Meal, before 1740, by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.)