Lent 02•23•2021: Show Me The Way

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021

Hello friends—

Our prayers and prayer life are essential for a healthy relationship with God. Prayer is how we communicate with God. In my own personal experiences it has been a great source of comfort and at times frustration due to my own lack of listening skills. Our frustration can be of our own making, due to our impatience and inability to listen to God’s voice. At times our prayers can be viewed as a monologue instead of a dialogue. We do all the talking and either don’t wait for a response or we don’t want to hear the response. Our prayers sometimes sounds like a litany of requests, thanksgiving, guidance, answers, questions, solutions, compromises and many more that are rooted in logic parts of our minds and not our hearts. Nouwen says this about prayer life, “The crisis of our prayer life is that our minds may be filled with ideas of God while our heart remains far from God.” The key to a dialogue prayer life, is our hearts! ❤️ God speaks to our hearts, when we listen with our hearts, then we can connect with God on an intimate level. God’s voice is gentle and is soothing to the soul.

🔹 2 Thessalonians 3:5 🔹

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”

Our lives and the world are filled with so much noise that some of us simply cannot sleep in deafening silence because we are so saturated and conditioned to the noise. And as hard as it may seem, it is within that quietness and stillness, we can hear God’s tender voice calling to us.

When we recognize the voice of God we begin to see and hear him all around us. One of my favorite places to see and hear God is in nature. I love to take picture of things that seemingly call out to me, things of beauty that perhaps only my eyes can see. At this very moment I’m listening to the clock “tick” from across the room, as if God is saying Charlotte, you are not alone. God is in the face of strangers, a smile from someone sharing their joy with you. God is the sun rising from above a heavy fog. *This is one of my most favorite photos.

Photo credit: Me (10/03/2018)

And, borrowing from a conversation I had yesterday with my very dear friend Barry, “God is the lighthouse; anchored and leading us home.” God is always the immovable lighthouse ready to welcome us home, it is we who move freely toward and away from the lighthouse, only to be tossed to-and-fro by the waves of the world we live in and by the choices we make.

Lenten M•I•C•R•O Practice for today:

~Let Go Day 6

It is human nature to hold on to resentment and grudges. Today practice letting go of resentment and open your heart to new possibilities.

✝️ Prayer ✝️

Why, O Lord, is it so hard for me

to keep my heart directed toward you?

Why does my mind wander off in so many directions,

and why does my heart desire

the things that lead me astray?

Let me sense your presence in the midst of my turmoil.

Take my tired body,

my confused mind,

and my restless soul into your arms

and give me rest, simple rest.

~ Amen

~Charlotte, the Seeker of unexpected Comfort, Happiness, Joy and Patience.

References:

Show Me The Way — Henri J.M.Nouwen • 1992 The Crossroad Publishing 

https://biblehub.com/

https://www.biblegateway.com/

(NJBV) New Jerusalem Bible Version/Translation