The beginning

We had our first Hineni meetings Wednesday and today. We went through the agenda of reading some Scripture, then sharing our prayers, with a chorus of "We lift our prayer to the Lord," then praying with the structure of:

1. Presence of God
2. Body of Prayer
3. Walking with Jesus

For this first session, the middle -- the body -- was "praying in color" (by Sybil MacBeth). In simple terms, praying in color is using doodling, and decorating your doodles, as a way to focus your mind on your prayers, your meditations, and listening to God.  Each session we will do a different methodology for the body of the prayer.

It was good to sit with each other in the presence of God. We used our imaginations to think of ourselves in God's presence. First, we breathe deeply to calm our minds and bodies. Then we imagine -- or think about -- one of the many stories in the Bible when someone is in the presence of God. I often use the time when God came to Moses in a burning bush. There are myriads of other stories -- when God spoke to Abraham about becoming a nation with descendants as numerous as the stars, when Moses was on Mt. Sinai and his face glowed from having been in the presence of God, when God called Samuel in the night, when the angel came to Mary to tell her she would be the mother of Jesus, and on and on. 

It helps to think of all 5 senses as we imagine being in God's presence. What do I hear? What do I see? What do I taste? What do I feel? What do I smell? Asking yourself these questions can be helpful when you may have a harder time imagining or seeing in your mind's eye. You can think about the story in the Bible and ask what the person in the story would hear, see, taste, feel and smell.

After the time of doodling and coloring, we ended with walking with Jesus, or what the Jesuits call the "colloquy" talking with Jesus like a friend. This is a wonderful time for me. It all is, but I have actually come to feel like Jesus is my friend. I walk and talk with him. I feel his presence, a bodily presence, as if he were there. I talk to him, other times we walk silently, I wonder about what he would think or say. I told the group that one time I was talking to someone who said they were lonely. I told them about becoming friends with Jesus and I urged them to do the same. They looked at me blankly. I don't think it made any sense to them. But now that I pray this way pretty much every day, my friendship with Jesus is real in a way it never was before.

Our meeting started with reading I Corinthians 12:12 to the end of I Corinthians 13. The passage in chapter 12 came to me as I was thinking and praying about us (our church) becoming a community, a family. The heading for that passage (at least in my Bible) is "One Body, Many Members." It also reminded me of a series of Peanuts cartoons that touched on this concept. Both the cartoon and the passage say, "...you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." and "God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

Once I started reading the passage in Chapter 12, there was no way I could stop there and not include I Corinthians 13. "...Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." It is through love that we are a family -- a family that loves each other and loves God.

I encourage us all to try to spend time in prayer with God each day. I confess that I have heard that statement all my life and have not been able to be consistent in it myself. I know it's not easy! I am a morning person and I kept thinking I would carve some time out each morning. But I will tell you what has worked for me: I try to go to bed around 9-ish (give or take), and I sit up in bed with my Bible, my journal, and my devotional. I read the Scripture from the devotional, write some thoughts, or write my prayer, sometimes I just copy the Scripture, or maybe draw or doodle my thoughts, then I pray with the structure outlined above. I would estimate it takes maybe half an hour. I have a friend who does his time with God every day after breakfast. One of my associates uses his lunch hour. Different times work for different people. I can tell you, though, it helps to sit up! Trying to do this lying down is dangerous -- sleep just sneaks up.

May God bless us all as we continue to grow internally strong.