This past Sunday more than a few people commented after the service that I seemed to have a “hitch in my giddy-up…” They were right; a few months ago an MRI told me that I had slightly torn something called the meniscus on my left knee. The word slightly only relates to the size of the damage, not the amount of the discomfort. It really hurts…. Right now I’m in the middle of the treatment option that I understand as, “let’s see how it goes.” Well, it’s not going very well and although I know I sound like a whiner when I say it, “I’m frustrated!”
The frustration comes because I have to do so many things differently… more slowly… with an added attention… and not without some discomfort. There have been few days where a minute does not pass by that I don’t think about what is going on inside my left knee… and how is it going to get better. And no, I have not been on my bike in a month!
What I want to focus on now is what occurred to me in the middle of the prayer time on Sunday morning. Like we do every Sunday morning, we had just finished sharing several significant prayer concerns. There were many more significant, life-altering concerns than my discomfort. There were even some life-threatening concerns. As I was standing there with my knee throbbing, it occurred to me how concerns that are often raised in our time of prayer are things that can consume a life as my discomfort was attempting to consume me.
I prayed out loud...a bit more passionately and by passionately I mean louder than usual (discomfort and pain will bring that out in most of us)…. “God, when something is wrong, when we are worried or sick or in pain or facing death, it consumes us!” Praying in worship is a privilege and a challenge. The challenge comes in being authentic without being self-centered. On Sunday I came close to that line. I also experienced the sense that someone was listening to me. And in that moment…. in that prayer…. in that presence, it also occurred to me that we are never alone in our time of desperation and fear.
Prayer is many things: It is an attentiveness to the sacred and holy in our lives. Prayer is a desire of our hearts. And when life hurts so much that the pain threatens to consume us and we cannot help but shout out our need, prayer is the sense that someone is listening.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
The frustration comes because I have to do so many things differently… more slowly… with an added attention… and not without some discomfort. There have been few days where a minute does not pass by that I don’t think about what is going on inside my left knee… and how is it going to get better. And no, I have not been on my bike in a month!
What I want to focus on now is what occurred to me in the middle of the prayer time on Sunday morning. Like we do every Sunday morning, we had just finished sharing several significant prayer concerns. There were many more significant, life-altering concerns than my discomfort. There were even some life-threatening concerns. As I was standing there with my knee throbbing, it occurred to me how concerns that are often raised in our time of prayer are things that can consume a life as my discomfort was attempting to consume me.
I prayed out loud...a bit more passionately and by passionately I mean louder than usual (discomfort and pain will bring that out in most of us)…. “God, when something is wrong, when we are worried or sick or in pain or facing death, it consumes us!” Praying in worship is a privilege and a challenge. The challenge comes in being authentic without being self-centered. On Sunday I came close to that line. I also experienced the sense that someone was listening to me. And in that moment…. in that prayer…. in that presence, it also occurred to me that we are never alone in our time of desperation and fear.
Prayer is many things: It is an attentiveness to the sacred and holy in our lives. Prayer is a desire of our hearts. And when life hurts so much that the pain threatens to consume us and we cannot help but shout out our need, prayer is the sense that someone is listening.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
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