The Path of Celtic Prayer

Prayer is not one of my strengths spiritually. It is something I really want to be disciplined at and to find joy in, but honestly, it never has been. When I was an associate pastor in California, the senior pastor asked me to offer the pastoral prayer each week. I seriously dreaded it. And in my own relationship with God, it has been sporadic and blah to say the least.
When the book, The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy came across my desk, I was intrigued. Calvin Miller offers a look at six traits of Celtic prayer and how it can infuse our own prayer with joy, richness and better communication with God (which is what it is all about anyway).
Dr. Miller writes this book to,

"address the way the Celtic people related to God to keep their devotion centered on the Savior. But I also want to demonstrate how these ancient lovers of God were able to strip away institutional business and empty religiousity that can separate Christians from Christ."

The six forms of prayer which Dr. Miller expounds on are Trinity praying, praying the Scriptures, Creature praise, Long, wandering prayer, The Lorica (protection), and The Confession.
I found the chapter on Trinity praying a "duh" kind of moment. Too often we think of praying only to the Father or Jesus (very rarely the Holy Spirit as evangelicals), but the Celts offered prayers to all three persons of the Trinity. I say this is a "duh" moment because it should be obvious, but I did not ever think about it before.
My favorite chapter was the one on praying the Scripture. The Celts believed that the mere recitation of Scripture held a kind of power. Dr. Miller suggests making Scripture our own by praying it back to God. This morning I went out by a lake and prayed Psalm 62 to God. I read it aloud, interjected "you" instead of "God" and changed the pronouns to apply to myself specifically. It was a great time of prayer. I highly recommend trying it.

Creative Prayer

What if you were to communicate with your spouse the same way you communicate with Jesus? How healthy would your relationship be? Chris Tiegreen asks this question in his new book, Creative Prayer. For me, I had never thought about prayer other than talking to God - maybe if I was feeling especially contemplative, I would spend time in meditation, but mostly, talking at God.
In reading Mr. Tiergreen's book, I was able to see a different perspective, than I had seen before. God has divine creativity and uses that creativity everyday to communicate with us - and very seldom does he ever use audible words.
My wife and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary this coming weekend & if I were to just say, I love you and I am glad I married you, she would appreciate that, but words, like they say, are cheap. I all I ever did was talk to her, but never did any other expression of love, she might not feel loved .
Mr. Tiergreen uses that same comparison in Creative Prayer. God goes all out, everyday, and we (sometimes) offer words, and those more times than not express our displeasure with him, or the way he does things.
Throughout the book Mr. Tiergreen offers suggestions of creative ways we can show our love and appreciation to our Creator. The last chapter - Full Contact Prayer - is a wonderful idea starter for the reader to engage all his senses and more in our communication with our Father. One thing that struck me as I was reading was the concept of our praise being a pleasant aroma to God (I heard this many times in church growing up, but never really understood it). In thinking through Mr. Tiergreen's book, I think I understood that a bit more. But I think the reason I never understood it was because every time I heard it used it was before singing or preaching. There was never anything that would smell pleasant (literally, the sense of smell). But in thinking about using all senses and creative avenues, we can offer God offerings which look, smell, taste, sound and feel pleasant. Get creative!

Keeping Company With God - A Prayer Journal

I love the idea of journaling. I am terrible at it, but I would love to be one who journals. As evidenced by this site, I enjoy writing my thoughts (I suppose this counts somewhat as a journal, but probably not). I have had three phenomenal experiences in my past at journaling. What did those three things have in common? I had something specific to write about & had "someone" providing me questions and thoughts upon which to write.
The first one was the Purpose Driven Life Journal. I went through this journal (and the book again) after my church went through the campaign. This journal provided thoughts, questions and ample room to write your thoughts about that days reading. We had just left a ministry position in California and I was doing odd jobs in Michigan & was fencing (putting up chain-link fence, not sword fighting, which would have been much cooler) and was struggling emotionally and spiritually. This journal helped me record my thoughts and think through my purpose in a deeper way than merely reading the book.

The second experience was the Mere Christianity Journal. This was by far my favorite journal and the most challenging. C.S. Lewis is no slouch. There are some very heady thoughts in that book. This journal selected quotes from the book & asked questions which I struggled with and really needed to wrestle with at the time. This is not a good journal for people who just wish to put there time in, but for those who want to dig deep into Mere Christianity and themselves.

The third was as recent as last summer. I came across the book, Chazown, and while not a journal, Mr. Groeschel highly encourages journaling at the end of each section. I took him up on this and found the process highly engaging. The book is all about finding God's vision for your life & the journaling is an indispensable part of this process.

All this to say that I am very excited that Philip Yancey has recently released a prayer journal, Keeping Company with God, in connection with his book Prayer. I read Prayer earlier this year and found it quite illuminating. I am especially excited to dive into this journal, in hopes that it will only serve to enrich my relationship with Jesus. I have always had difficulty with prayer and Mr. Yancey's book was quite helpful, and I only expect this journal to be along those same lines.