Day 17
November 4, 2008 – a historic day in American history, the day the United States of America elected its first African American president.
It’s been a strange exercise to be so focused on prayer during the last 17 days running up to today. How nice, or should I say wise of God to move me into this frame of mind during this important election period. Not a political person by nature, I have felt more invested in the process because of praying. I also feel a calm in the aftermath and great hope for our country—and I should qualify that by telling you that I did not vote for Hawaii’s native son but for his opponent, and I feel un-agitated by the results.
That, I am discovering, is the nature of prayer. Conversation and contemplation with God has an equalizing effect, stabilizing life and creating equilibrium when everything else hangs in the balance. I guess we could call it "peace."
People are always asking me how things are going—good, bad, well, hard, happily, terribly could be answers. Most times I don’t really know how to answer honestly. I used to say a lot: “Busy. We’ve been really busy.”
But the truth is that Dan’s and my life is ALWAYS busy. That’s how it's been for 27 years; that's the norm. When are we not caught up in a project, program, problem that rocks our boat? Yup, our boat is pretty much rocking all the time. We man a boat always caught up in gale winds, towering ocean swells, fast currents, rocky coastlines, sweltering noons, and narrow straits. God hasn’t seemed to spare us the full open water experience.
[I should say, before your imaginations run wild, Dan and I are fine. We’re good, really good with each other. We happily share the same boat and neither of us plans to mutiny or sharply nudge the other before yelling, “Man overboard!”]
However, because our lives are ministry, our boat is a Life Boat. Ours is a little dinghy that rescues people amid the storms of life and also shows them how to sail through the storms.
Right now there are people around us who have debilitating diseases, dissolving marriages breaking apart, suicidal thoughts, financial melt downs, personal crises, and anxious, fearful hearts. Dan also has a church to pastor, together we have a separate ministry to continue, and we have children, family and friends we care for. That’s why our boat is always rocking.
More experience is not going to steady our boat. We cannot anticipate every maelstrom, nor get early warning on that rogue wave. Every change in weather means learning a new tact. And when we get caught in a perfect storm, the only thing we can do is ride it out, hang on for dear life, and pray.
That, my friends, is a good thing. We are getting good at riding out storms by praying through them. We pray to seek solutions, but in a storm the fix-its are seldom quick or easy. We pray to understand circumstances, but in a storm those circumstances are frequently beyond our control. We pray to find resolutions, but in a storm the origins are deep, emotional and often not logical. We pray for miracles, and sometimes the miracles look a lot different from the good weather and calm seas we seek.
It makes me think of Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 8:23-26:
Then [Jesus] got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
I am learning that prayer is having Jesus in the boat. Our boats will be rocked: life is rocky. I can guarantee that, whether or not you are in ministry. We just cannot cross the ocean without encountering storms and we cannot control the storms. However, in the tipping and toppling, the swishing and sloshing, Jesus sits in the center and calls us to sit with him and see life from his perspective. He takes us through the ups and downs of life.
Prayer is perspective and patience in a rocking boat, and on a rocky road to Washington.
It’s been a strange exercise to be so focused on prayer during the last 17 days running up to today. How nice, or should I say wise of God to move me into this frame of mind during this important election period. Not a political person by nature, I have felt more invested in the process because of praying. I also feel a calm in the aftermath and great hope for our country—and I should qualify that by telling you that I did not vote for Hawaii’s native son but for his opponent, and I feel un-agitated by the results.
That, I am discovering, is the nature of prayer. Conversation and contemplation with God has an equalizing effect, stabilizing life and creating equilibrium when everything else hangs in the balance. I guess we could call it "peace."
People are always asking me how things are going—good, bad, well, hard, happily, terribly could be answers. Most times I don’t really know how to answer honestly. I used to say a lot: “Busy. We’ve been really busy.”
But the truth is that Dan’s and my life is ALWAYS busy. That’s how it's been for 27 years; that's the norm. When are we not caught up in a project, program, problem that rocks our boat? Yup, our boat is pretty much rocking all the time. We man a boat always caught up in gale winds, towering ocean swells, fast currents, rocky coastlines, sweltering noons, and narrow straits. God hasn’t seemed to spare us the full open water experience.
[I should say, before your imaginations run wild, Dan and I are fine. We’re good, really good with each other. We happily share the same boat and neither of us plans to mutiny or sharply nudge the other before yelling, “Man overboard!”]
However, because our lives are ministry, our boat is a Life Boat. Ours is a little dinghy that rescues people amid the storms of life and also shows them how to sail through the storms.
Right now there are people around us who have debilitating diseases, dissolving marriages breaking apart, suicidal thoughts, financial melt downs, personal crises, and anxious, fearful hearts. Dan also has a church to pastor, together we have a separate ministry to continue, and we have children, family and friends we care for. That’s why our boat is always rocking.
More experience is not going to steady our boat. We cannot anticipate every maelstrom, nor get early warning on that rogue wave. Every change in weather means learning a new tact. And when we get caught in a perfect storm, the only thing we can do is ride it out, hang on for dear life, and pray.
That, my friends, is a good thing. We are getting good at riding out storms by praying through them. We pray to seek solutions, but in a storm the fix-its are seldom quick or easy. We pray to understand circumstances, but in a storm those circumstances are frequently beyond our control. We pray to find resolutions, but in a storm the origins are deep, emotional and often not logical. We pray for miracles, and sometimes the miracles look a lot different from the good weather and calm seas we seek.
It makes me think of Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 8:23-26:
Then [Jesus] got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
I am learning that prayer is having Jesus in the boat. Our boats will be rocked: life is rocky. I can guarantee that, whether or not you are in ministry. We just cannot cross the ocean without encountering storms and we cannot control the storms. However, in the tipping and toppling, the swishing and sloshing, Jesus sits in the center and calls us to sit with him and see life from his perspective. He takes us through the ups and downs of life.
Prayer is perspective and patience in a rocking boat, and on a rocky road to Washington.
posted by Pam Chun at 12:27 AM
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