paravanes:meditations

If you aren't using Zoom, Facebook, or other technology, try these low tech methods of staying in touch. 1. Create a conference call, scheduled at a regular time, when you and your small group can: sing together, read scripture to each other, pray together. Try using your conference call time to share insights into a chapter of a book the group has agreed to read during the week. 2. Text prayers to/for each other at a pre-arranged time. Share daily or weekly updates. 3. Find inspirational sermons on YouTube. Choose a certain time to view the video together. Share comments in the video's comment section. Refer other inspirational videos to each other during the week. 4. Create a letter writing circle: send notes, cards, and letters to each other. Share answered prayers and prayer requests and insights from a favorite Bible passage or from devotional reading. Schedule the day when you will send your mail so that everyone in your group receives mail each week. Save your ma

If you're going to pray about the coronavirus, or COVID19, situation, go big. Pray big. Pray without limits. Pray for the virus to be turned away from the earth. Don't pray only for your family, your town, your state, your country. Pray for the virus to be turned away. What does this mean? It means you will pray for government leaders and for business leaders. Your politics don't matter. Their politics don't matter. Pray they will make wise, compassionate, effective decisions. Pray for the health workers who are risking their lives each hour and each day. Pray for law enforcement and first responders who go into spaces the rest of us avoid at all costs. Pray for unemployed workers and struggling  business owners  who don't know what the next thirty days will bring. Pray for the children and families who struggle to stay safe and well in homes that are dominated by domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and sexual abuse. Pray for those who ar

I shared with a friend my new twice daily prayer practice: one prayer in the morning, and one prayer in the evening. This practice began when I started to feel overwhelmed by the constant news reporting on COVID19, or the coronavirus. It's not a hoax, a phase, or a media manipulation. I like to be informed, because fact based information makes us smarter. Smart is good. The prayer practice I shared involves a morning prayer of worship, followed by requests for insight, courage, faith, and understanding. Finally, I pray health for all people and wisdom and courage for all leaders. Informed medical counsel says our bodies and minds need several hours of sleep every 24 hours. My second prayer of the day is for restful, healing sleep. No matter what happens tomorrow, we will handle it better if we get a good night's sleep. This prayer features gently closed eyes, and slow, deep breathing for about 5 to 7 minutes. At this time of challenge, I urge you to find and commi

A point of view...(fictional, interpretive, instructional) Yes, I know God told us not to look back. Actually, it was the angels who led us away who told us not to look back. I didn't really look back. I just peeked, just for a second. It's true. The city was an awful place. The night before we left, the angels supernaturally blinded the mob that surrounded our house, ready to knock down our doors and flood into the house. Lot's uncle made a bargain with God.  A bargain with God? Yes, their deal was that if ten righteous people could be found in the city of thousands, God would allow everything to go on as usual. God would leave everything in place for the sake of ten people. Are the righteous worth that much? Abraham's God must think so. No, it wasn't exactly a good place. I know that. But it was what I knew. It was all I knew. It wasn't so bad, once you got used to it. Well, they couldn't find ten good people, ten " righteous people ",