Prayer, why we may fear it

Tefilah is the Hebrew word English translates as "prayer". Recently it has been revealed to me by Rabbi Chava Bahle that this is a poor translation. In English, the word "to pray" means to beg or beseech. The problem is that tefilah does not mean that. Rather it means to 1) self-reflect and 2) taking a wide range of things and unifying them. 

The point being that prayer is a tool God uses to change us rather than a tool we use to change God.

Prayer is also the practice of being able to step back and reflect on how it is that contradictory things are actually unified in some way. Being able to "see" the unity in the midst of a broken world is very important. The genius and beauty of the Lord's Prayer is Jesus' ability to take a wide range of things (thankfulness, the greatest commandment, hope, dream, praise, etc.) and put them all together. Additionally the prayer takes things that seem contradictory and unites them, such as praying that heaven will come on earth. 

Prayer changes our hearts and helps us see. This is why those who pray know the power it has to change us. Perhaps that is why many of us do not pray - at some level we know it will change us and we fear that change. 

More Humble Than Proud

In the Hebrew the word for humility carries with it a sense of knowing how much space to take up. When should you take up space in order to help those who need help and when do you need to take up less space in order to allow others to have space to breathe. It is a great image for me to consider that being humble has both a meek and a powerful side to it.

When I think of the word 'proud' I tend to think of a person puffing out their chest, sometimes in healthy ways (such as when a good job is done) and sometimes in a unhealthy ways (such as when talking about how awesome you are). Proud always takes up more space while humility knows what is the correct space to take up. 

For reasons I do not know, we are writing and talking less about being humble and more about being proud (see Ngram below). The spiritual life is one that is not afraid of being proud, there are healthy times to take up more space. However, the spiritual life is knowing when to take up less space. Proud is fine, humble is greater.

May the Lord torment you

The past week I encountered a woman named Sheila Richards who has a habit of sharing a particular benediction of retired Indiana Conference Bishop White. He contributed this benediction to the now no longer in print United Methodist Reporter. Since she shared it with me I thought others may resonate with it. 

May the Lord torment you. May the Lord disturb you. May the Lord keep before you the faces of the despised, rejected, lonely and oppressed. May the Lord give you strength and courage and compassion to make this a better world. And may you do your very best to make this a better city, a better state, a better world. And after you have done your best, may the Lord grant you peace. Amen.