Prayers For Living Into God’s World
After years of doing spiritual & missional formation with college age Christians, one of the trends that stands out is the struggle many have with communal prayer. While I still affirm times of open group prayer, I have also noticed that many struggle with performing their prayers, while others remained silent for lack of “inspiration” or because they felt their prayers inadequate compared to the more eloquent prayers. These and other reasons contributed to a difficult challenge in our community.
It was while we were exploring these challenges a few years ago that Christine Sine contacted me about reading an early draft of her new book “Light for the Journey: Morning & Evening Prayers for Living into God’s World”. This collection of morning & evening prayers, laid out to cover a full week, take us through different emphases of faith in reflective and creative ways. With her permission, we adapted the prayers for use in our community as an experiment. Since then, they have become a fixed part of our community life, as well as for many of our personal times of private prayer. It was and is a real gift to us.
I was excited to learn that “Light for the Journey” is now available for order through Mustard Seed Associates. I highly recommend this resource to you and to your communities. Born out of their own life in share community, the tested authenticity of the material is clear throughout. Christine briefly explains each theme (from the introduction):
Sunday’s theme begins the week with the celebration of Sabbath and anticipation of God’s eternal shalom world. We rejoice in this vision of wholeness and abundance which will one day be completely fulfilled in Christ.
On Monday we focus on our restored relationship to God our Creator and the call to be stewards of God’s creation. The gospel always comes to us in the midst of the created world, which was made through Jesus Christ and is being recreated through him.
On Tuesday our focus shifts to Christ our Savior and what it means to carry his incarnational presence into our world. As Christ’s followers, we are called to live out the claims of the gospel.
Wednesday focuses on the in-dwelling Holy Spirit who equips us with the gifts and abilities to carry out the gospel call as God’s servants and proclaimers of God’s resurrection- created world.
On Thursday our reflections turn towards community and what it means to be part of God’s eternal family from every tribe and nation, rich and poor, male and female.
Friday reflects on the Cross and the wholeness achieved through repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
We conclude the week on Saturday with a focus on the kingdom of God and the clouds of witnesses who have gone before us.
Phyllis Tickle, author of “The Great Emergence”, had this to say about the book:
“In the history of Christian formation literature, it has consistently been the small volume that has conveyed the greatest worth. That principle nowhere holds more true than it does here. Like the light which its title references, this manual, in its succinctness, travels broadly and illumines perfectly. Presenting both assigned prayers for each day of the week and also rich instruction in how the Christian forms a life of prayer, Sine speaks to us gently, but authoritatively. There is, in all of this, a kind of poignancy as well. We understand that Sine is writing to us not about some theory, but out of experience and about the sure knowledge of a life of prayer fully lived. Like every wise Christian teacher before her, Christine Sine understands—and persuades us—that it is in community that Christians pray most formatively and in community that we must seek to pray.”
Head over to Mustard Seed Associates and order a copy (or 10!) today. It is well worth it.
