Can list making be a Spiritual Discipline?

 

Maybe you are like me and you get fed up with how much you want to remember but the reality is that so much of it gets forgotten. So you make lists. You have lists on your counter at home, on your bedside stand, on your desk at work, on your iPhone, on your laptop...soon you are swimming in post-it notes of various lists.

I started two new spiritual disciplines this morning as part of my morning quiet time and I hope they will not only bear much fruit in my life, in my marriage and in my walk with Christ. But I also hope it will help me to better remember the beautiful things of God!

My wife loves praise and worship music and we have many CDs so I decided to take what I do well (making lists) and take what I don't do well (remembering music lyrics) and pair them together. The hope and plan is to listen to one or two songs a day and really focus on the lyrics and discern the maid ideas or themes of the song. What is being said? What Truth is being conveyed? And then write the song title and album on a list for future reference when I'm looking for that right song for someone in need or when planning a worship service.

Today I started with The Gospel Song and The Glories of Calvary by Sovereign Grace Music which can be found here. Or you can listen to the entire album here for free.


To take my list making a step further (I know, I know, my best friend from college is probably laughing right now saying your OCD is definitely coming out :) as I was reading through Nehemiah 11-13 and Esther 1-2 this morning I also started lists of themes from these chapters. Themes like: The Precedence for Choirs in Worship, Confrontation and Guarding the purity of God's People, the Precedence for the Involvement of Children in Worship, Tithing, How Women/Wives and Men/Husbands are to be Treated and to Act, God's Sovereignty, etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing music lyrics and Scripture passages come alive today in a new way... in the form of lists!

Long live the journal and post-it note! :)

Thoughts on Nehemiah's "Arrow" Prayers

It's been said somewhere in Christian literature, or maybe Christian folk lore :), that if Martin Luther had a lot to do in a day he would wake up 2-3 hours earlier JUST to pray! The busier he was, the more he prayed and the earlier he woke up!

Certainly we could all learn A LOT, myself included, about the discipline of prayer from Martin Luther. After all we see in the Book of Proverbs the following:

⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest —
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man (Proverbs 6:9-11).

Didn't Jesus spend the night praying on the mountain before: selecting his disciples (Luke 6:11-13) and before walking on the water (Matthew 14:23ff) and before his journey to Golgotha in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36ff)?

Certainly there is Biblical backing for long prayer times like what Jesus did here and what Martin Luther lived out. But we also see many references for short prayers, what I call (or more likely, I heard this from someone else but can't remember who) "arrow prayers." 

After all, didn't Jesus also say, "and when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:7-8)? After that comment he then went on to teach them "the Lord's Prayer."

So there is also Biblical support for short prayers and I was again reminded of this by Nehemiah's prayer life in Nehemiah 5:19; 6:14.

"Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people" (Neh. 5:19) and 

"Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me" (Neh. 6:14).

Short, sweet, to the point. God, be with me for all the work I have done for your people. And God be with my enemies for vengeance is yours (see Rom. 12:18ff).

What a great reminder it was for me this morning as I was folding laundry and walking our dog that I could say quick, short prayers - arrow prayers.

Maybe you are in a season where you need to be in your prayer closet for hours, leaning into God and asking, seeking and knocking (Luke 11:9)? But maybe you are in a season where arrow prayers to our gracious Heavenly Father would be helpful as you look at your prayer lists?

Either way, I encourage you to pray, pray, pray!

Making the front page of our local newspaper

Cari and I made the front page of the Staunton, VA newspaper this past weekend, you can check it out here. It's a great little article about a B&B that our good friends run here in Waynesboro! If you are looking to come visit us you are more than welcome to stay with us, but I PROMISE the breakfasts are much better at The Speckled Trout B&B!