Every parent knows the simple pleasure of a phone call from their children.
When I lived out of state for awhile, I would call my dad from our various vacation destinations. He enjoyed "being there" with us and always encouraged me to call again on the next trip. He said it made him feel the fun of the vacation experience to get a first hand phone call while we were experiencing it ourselves.
This past week we got some texts and calls from our adult daughter while she was out west with her husband on vacation. We talk to her all the time when she's home, here in our area. So I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed getting some of the first hand insight during their trip. It literally made me smile and I felt a little of the vacation breeze even though I was still at work myself.
My dad wasn't making it up all those years. There's some special connection with your kids that makes even a vacation phone call come alive. Its the darndest thing !
God has over 6 billion kids out there. Working, suffering, recovering, vacationing, thriving, dying.
Every call out to him is appreciated.
Tell him where you are right now, if you plan to stay away longer, when you're coming home.
Let him know if you need anything. Make plans to get together and catch up again soon.
He is our Heavenly Father. You matter to Him. He likes it when you call, no matter where you are.
What do you believe?
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Are You Out of Breath When You Pray?
Are you staying in shape?
I mean for prayer. Are you in condition? Ready to go? Able to help the team?
I thought about this during the 9 a.m. service today.
I play guitar at our church almost every week.
Our music director does all the hard work, choosing the music, lining up the vocalists, organizing the order of worship, etc.
For my part, I just have to show up ready to play. Have my guitars tuned and ready (six and twelve string), music in order, and spiritually ready to participate with our pastor and other members of the worship team.
But there's something few people know, other than my wife and daughter.
In order to play 11 - 12 different worship pieces and keep pace with a very talented keyboardist, I have to "stay in shape." I don't necessarily have to practice the exact songs for the upcoming week. But I do need to play my guitars regularly, play scales, shape various bar chords, finger pick a little and stay limber.
Nobody will know if I don't practice, and nobody asks. But there are ways to tell.
Maybe I'm too slow to change chords in a very fast piece. Or, a bar chord doesn't ring out clearly because I'm not holding all the strings down.
But what I notice most after a couple weeks of lazy preparation is that my fingers hurt!
All guitar players develop a protective callus at the tip of each chord-making finger. It also protects my right hand fingers from "finger picking." With ongoing practice it provides a welcome cushion from the cutting line of a very sharp guitar string. But once your fingers get sore - say halfway through a worship service - you really have to suck it up and play through. Or...you just don't play as well, and you've not provided a return on your talent (see Matthew 25 14-28).
I feel a similar twinge when I haven't been praying enough during the week. My prayers start to lose focus and they don't "ring out." And after too much prayer laziness, it makes my heart hurt.
Music is a gift to me. I never want to take it for granted. There is indescribable joy associated with worship music played well. Its worth a little practice to stay at my peak playing ability. Sore fingers are pretty good reminder when I slack off!
Same for prayer - God's gift to all of us, the reassurance and comfort of direct communication with a loving Father. Its worth my daily effort to stay in peak prayer condition...
What do you believe?
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