Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Musings about Jesus

just wanted to suggest to you, on the off chance that you are a reader of my blog but not of my dad's, that you check out his most recent post on final authority: church, bible, Jesus...

it's a topic, I think, that will be getting more and more attention in the coming decades.  Phyllis Tickle's latest book, The Great Emergence, (which is, as usual, brilliant) suggests that we are in the midst of a once every 500 years reformation in the church, and along with every reformation over the past two centuries, there comes some serious wrestling with the question of authority.

anyway, I really resonated with the post, and thought you might find it thought (and maybe even heart) provoking.

Friday, November 21, 2008

scripture project - Joshua

been working on collage for our front hall wall.  a set of scripture passages and words arranged in a large frame.  scanning them and messing around a little with photoshop.    trying to pick ones that have a place of more meaningful meaning in my/our lives. 

here's one the the first passages I worked on.

Joshua 1

a good friend paraphrased this one for me in a note of encouragement when I first began to serve as a senior pastor.  packs a punch.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

welcome to the new home of "breathing room"

welcome to the new address for this blog - new posts will be added here from here on out.  should give me a little more updating flexibility, given my limited knowledge of html, plus a few cool new features.  enjoy!  and don't forget to update your feed readers, bookmarks, etc.  shortly, www.breathingroomonline.com and www.jessewilsononline.com should forward to the new address as well.  cheerio.

stillness prayer / settling self before God

mentioned during the message on Sunday that I'd post about a helpful prayer tip I'd received from my dad. useful especially for me when trying to still myself before God, but probably useful as a discipline in and of itself.

so much of me is buzzing, vibrating, clanging when I sit down to pray during the course of a normal day.  and not necessarily with a kind of regular musical frequency; more like when a guitar is starting a feedback loop.

so after a deep breath or two, I've been working through body, mind, heart, soul and presenting myself to God as I am, or at least as much I am aware of myself.

starting with my body, I'll take note (usually cataloging from head to toe) of what I feel, temperature, energy, aches, pains, hunger, thirst, etc  and simply offer (for lack of a better word) it to him.  sort of a, hey, my head hurts a little, stiff neck, I'm hungry, knees ache.  I surrender my concern for my body to you here now as I begin to pray. 

then on to my mind.  I'll briefly consider the things I've been thinking about the day - the sermon coming up this week, so and so's email I have to reply to, this or that problem that needs solving, some idea I've been reading about, a decision that needs making, etc.   just the stuff that pops up on first consideration.  and similarly, offer it.  Lord, thinking about this and that right now; I'm setting those thoughts aside to think on you - my mind's yours.  something like that at least.  some sort of acknowledgment and letting go.

heart for me usually is a two-part process.  first my emotions.  identifying and offering whichever emotions are currently insistent enough for me to have been aware of in the last hour or so, sometimes asking for the Spirit's help in being aware of emotions that might be under the surface.  after emotions, it's stuff that has to do with my will.  identifying current conflicts between my will and my sense of his will for me.  the prayer goes something along the lines of  Lord, here's the stuff that my heart seems to be desiring, lusting after, pursuing that I feel like you want to replace with different desires, some better kingdom pursuit.  as I come to you now, I confess this to be the state of my heart.  it's not like a thorough-going process of working through these things with God, more like just telling him I don't want to hide from him while I'm spending time with him, and if he wants to show up with me in this current state of brokenness, that I'm open to him being here.

soul for me has to do (at least in this context) my relational connections.  with him, with others.  so I just think of each person or group of people that I'm most connected with or have responsibility for, and acknowledge to God that he has primary relationship with each of them.  for example,  Lord, while I'm praying here now, I give my relationship to Ronni, and Colin, and Elle, and Micah to you.  pretty simple.  I don't dwell on this part of the prayer very long, unless I have some specific concern about the relationship, in which case I offer that concern, too.

that's it.  usually then, I'm in a much more settled place of peace for prayer.

any things you've learned, grown in, been frustrated by that you can share in this discipline?  comments are open.