ime to travel over here in response to the email with our new address and photos on it, here's the new photos of Glynn and Bum (sounds like "boom" in Thai). They are here in the States for a few years because her and Glynn are pondering the best way to prepare for taking Christ to Bum's hometown in Thailand. It's a fairly large city with very few Christians--typical of her part of Thailand. They are living in Birmingham right now and praying about their future plans. If you think of them, as you are right now as you read, how about asking God to direct their steps? The first photo is in our house in the kitchen, which leaves much to be desired in the realm of room. I think we have less cabin
ets and counter space than we had in Thailand and that was crazy enough. We are thankful!Something quite wonderful about Thai people is their desire to serve--that includes the Buddhist, secularist and Christians. Here's Bum in a typical photo of her doing the dishes and cleaning up. They helped us move into this house and spent all day Saturday packing and preparing the boxes and boxes that had to be carried away. What a blessing.
Our house came with a pool table, which quickly was taken away. On the day all the big and heavy stuff was moved, Leah lined up a bunch of her football buddy coaches and they did all the heavy lifting. Cedric really liked the table so we gave it to him and he w
as so stoked. We were blessed to give it to him. When he came to take it away it was a riot because he is huge and thought it wouldn't be thaaaaat difficult. Ha. How God can humble the strong. Anyway, there's Bum lining up a shot. She'd never played so it was fun teaching her until she started winning. That was another good reason to get rid of it--that and we needed somewhere to put our furniture.What about those thoughts on prayer? Thought you'd never ask. About a year and a half ago I was challenged by God to quit fooling around with my life and try and get my body to do what my heart knew was correct. It's an on-going war for sure but I am grateful for the insights God has given me the last few months. The ordeal with moving into this house, job hunting and such provided ample opportunities for failure. God's mercy was enough. I read a book about a saint of the Orthodox church named Nektarios and some of the things he taught me about prayer are well worth sharing with you. So I'll condense them as much as possible and give you the heart of what I've found to be helpful.
"True prayer is undistracted, prolonged, performed with a contrite heart and an alert intellect. The vehicle of prayer is humility and prayer is a manifestation of humility. For being conscious of our own weakness, we invoke the power of God.
Prayer unites one with God, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and highest. Prayer is a forgetting of earthly things, an ascent to heaven. Through prayer we flee to God."
--Saint Nektarios
I don't know how you do when you pray, but when I stood my prayers up to what St. Nektarios had to say in regard to "a forgetting of earthy things, an ascent to heaven," I came up a bit (actually a lot) short. Often I go before the all holy Trinity and bring my list of things and people that have captured my attention. Certainly prayers for others is essential, but sometimes I do it at the expense of remembering that prayer is also an "ascent to heaven," a gathering with the angels and saints of old in heaven to sing the cherubic chorus--"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God immortal...." If you forget to whisper into the ear of your spouse "I love you" it won't be too long before you will be whispering to your pillow or very sorrowful dog who sees your misery and loneliness.
For the last few months I've been reading ORTHODOX PRAYER LIFE by Matthew the Poor. Matthew was a Monk who spent 55 years in his "cell" to get hold of what it means to pray. Of course he did a few other things to and was quite the "voice in the wilderness" to the Orthodox Church in Egypt. One part that captured my attention, along with many others so far, was a short section on being bound to the earth by...let's just read it.
"If we tie a bird with a string he will not be able to fly. If he tries to fly while is tied, his wing will certainly be broken and his body will be bruised. If we afterwards untie him, he will not be able to fly.
How great the number of souls that could fly toward God were they not fastened to the things of this world! It is vain that man should try to ascend toward God while he is bound with the cords of this earth. Even if he managed to release himself from all of them except one (however little or trivial that one is), he cannot live for God. The peril is even greater because of this last bond. For he will try to take off while weighed down heavily by this thing to which he is still bound. The result is that after becoming airborne for a little while and having the illusion that he is heading for God, he is surprised to find that this thing still weights him down as before. He thus falls from his spiritual height and his soul is broken with despair. After repeating this trial, he gives up his passion and enthusiasms for a breakthrough in the spiritual life.
Many are those who, while trying to grow in the life of prayer and worship, suddenly find their progress arrested and apathy overtakes them. They then fall back and recoil. The reason behind the lamentable backsliding may be a hidden cord. It may be a sin or some addiction to a drug or a certain habit. It may be lusting after a worldly pleasure; it may be a hidden quest for fame, honor and vainglory or a sensual love for someone or something in this world. Only one of these impediments is enough to shackle the soul and fetter its movement. It thus cannot enjoy perpetual release in the heaven of prayer or the life of contemplation."
It always saddens me to see someone I know to crash and burn in their spiritual life. I've lost a few very good friends over the years because of just what is described above. They started off strong and everyone was cheering, and the next thing you know they are back doing drugs or simply walking in the stupidity of their former way of doing things. What happened? One small string can keep a bird from soaring in the heavens and one dumb habit can wreak havoc in a person's life. In our lax culture it's not surprising to see "Christians" still dipping into the wells of the world and coming up empty so instead of showing repentance they get a bigger bucket and just keep on dipping. I wonder how long it will take for people who name the name of Christ Jesus to realize that we are called to die to the world and its enticements and get on with allowing the Holy Spirit to purge and cleanse us from all those things we are tied down with? My answer is simple for us. We've embraced the Orthodox church and found that the wells are deep and satisfying. All it takes on our part is to see that we are nothing and Christ is all. To live for Him and to act like Him and to grow and become like Him is what nourishes our souls and hearts.
Oh well, enough rambling for this one. May God bless you richly!
