The last two weeks of this year’s month-long sabbatical was spent on the beach with Rita, my rescue dog who was an excellent traveling companion. Many times we were the only ones on the beach - couldn’t see another soul in either direction, just the way I liked it. And I truly believe Rita loved seeing the sun come up and go down just as much as I did. So, on the first morning as we walked along the beach at the edge of the roaring waves, I asked God, “What do you have in store for me? Give it to me. I’m listening.” I may have even rubbed my hands together in anticipation.
Surprisingly, the answer came back immediately. I could clearly hear in my spirit, “I want you to focus on the Lord’s Prayer.” Seriously? What else you got?
“No offense, Lord, but I was looking for something a little grander.” I was asking for the Ten Commandments and he gave me a simple Vacation Bible School assignment. I was a little insulted.
But in order to be obedient, I began reciting the Lord’s Prayer out loud anyway to see if I could find the “hidden message”. Surely there was one, and once I found it, hopefully I could move on to something more exciting.
Well, that was eye-opening and a little embarrassing. I couldn’t remember it. I could recall pieces of it, but I was totally confused about the order of the phrases. What? How did this happen? I realized that unless I was surrounded by others reciting it at the same time, as we often are, I couldn’t say it solo. I had to laugh because I felt like Barney Fife struggling to recite the Gettysburg Address when Andy had to feed him every single line. My word, this was inexcusable.
When I got back to my Bible, I immediately looked up the Lord’s Prayer and thought to myself, I have fourteen days here. Wouldn’t it be great if the Lord’s Prayer could be broken down into fourteen parts and I could study a section each day? Well, guess what. There were exactly fourteen obvious phrases.
But peace and quiet forces one to think about things that otherwise get shoved aside. I thought a lot on this trip, often in the middle of the night, about how so many things in our lives are uncertain and unsettling when we naturally crave consistency and security. So many of our circumstances, however, are subject to outside influences or the actions of others, which we cannot control, yet they have the ability to pull the rug right out from under us and completely shake our world.
Even our closest, most rock-solid relationships that should be the safest places on the planet can unexpectedly cause the greatest pain and hurt. It’s that source of pain that results in spontaneous tears and waves of overwhelming grief - the kind that leaves us moving from one side of the room to the other just seeking a place where the hurt is not so bad. We see this sort of pain on a daily basis at Blue Monarch. Many of the women and children we serve have been hurt by parents and family members - the very ones who ought to provide the safest places for their hearts to rest. No wonder they have such a hard time trusting us and feeling the world is a safe place.
Much to my surprise, I grew to love my Lord’s Prayer assignment. Each morning I looked forward to my new line to study, and I enjoyed the things I discovered about each section, things I had never noticed before. For instance, isn’t it interesting that it says, “deliver us from evil” as if it’s a given that evil is something we will encounter? It doesn’t say, “prevent us from ever facing evil.” I even emailed our staff to make sure we focused more on the Lord’s Prayer from now on with the women and children we serve. Naturally, they tend to learn it over time, but I felt a new urgency to make sure they were provided a written copy when they arrived, and that we worked to teach the prayer to every woman and child who didn’t already know it. I recited the Lord's Prayer so many times over those two weeks, I believe Rita even learned the words.
God often speaks to me in my dreams - in fact, Blue Monarch was birthed from a dream I had many years ago. This trip was no exception. I had numerous dreams that felt very powerful, significant, and even prophetic, but it was the dream I had the last night that was the dearest to me.
In this dream I saw an ordinary family milling around in a kitchen as if it was right after a Sunday lunch. Everyone still had on their church clothes. The scene looked like a hand-colored vintage photograph from the 60’s, full of muted colors I love. There was a father, a mother, a young boy, and a little girl.
Suddenly I discovered, the little girl had a magnificent lion following her around everywhere she went, but it struck me no one seemed to notice the lion as if they couldn’t even see it. Yet it was always by her side. How strange. They didn't seem like the sort of family to have such an exotic pet.
Then, all of a sudden, I looked more closely. Wait. My mother used to have an apron like that. Isn’t that interesting. And that little girl, I had a dress just like that. Wow. Hey, wait! That is my own family in our kitchen on Pine Circle Drive where I grew up. The little girl is me!
That’s when God very gently said, “You are my child and I have been with you from the very beginning, even when you didn’t know I was there. I will never change, I will always love you, and I want you to start calling me, Father.”
He was the lion.
At that very moment I woke up and felt tears in my eyes and on my face. I looked at the soft, morning light coming in the window and took a deep breath. And then, as if the words were suddenly brand new, I began to pray...”Our Father,...wait, no...My Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...”
***********************
- My Father
- who art in heaven
- hallowed be thy name.
- Thy kingdom come,
- thy will be done
- on earth as it is in heaven.
- Give me this day
- my daily bread
- and forgive me my trespasses
- as I forgive those who trespass against me.
- Lead me not into temptation
- but deliver me from evil.
- For thine is the kingdom, the power,
- and the glory forever. Amen
