Praying Commonly: Take the Challenge

lec·tion·ar·y

ˈlekSHəˌnerē/

noun

1. a list or book of portions of the Bible appointed to be read at a church service.

Westside Christian Fellowship began using the Presbyterian lectionary several years ago when PastorK wanted to get us all on the same page reading scripture together.  Are we Presbyterian?  Nope.  He admits he chose almost at random, probably because he had the Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer on his shelf.  Either way, it's been a few years.  We started out listing all the readings on our website and then the Presbyterians came out with this handy app (iOS/android) that thankfully ended that feat.  (Shout out to Bob Marshall who came into the office every week to type out those readings.)

If you aren't familiar with a lectionary (I wasn't), it's simply a Bible reading schedule including some repeated phrases to give it form and written prayers.  After using it for a few years, I have a confession...my prayer life has changed, and I love it.

Flash back to teen years:

As a kid I LOVED alone time, was uber passionate about EVERYTHING, and could daydream my way through the longest summer day with the best of them.  I'd sit on the carpet in my room looking out the window (Because then you couldn't see the other houses and therefore it was easier to imagine I was an innkeeper in the middle ages taking a break between another round of bread and ale for my guests.  Duh.) and fill notebooks with my prayers to God.  I'd ramble.  I'd dream.  In those black and white composition notebooks I'd pour out my heart.

When life picked up speed and there wasn't the time to linger in front of a window, I admittedly didn't know how to pray.  How do you have a good conversation with God while in the midst of so much...LIFE?  As I matured my daydream prayers didn't come as naturally, or feel as honest or appropriate.  Most of my prayers became requests - for myself and others.

It wasn't long before my prayers settled into the comfortable Thanks, Help, Wow  as Anne Lamott says.  These aren't bad prayers, in fact - they're what we see most of in the Bible.  However, and maybe you're with me.  I got tired of me.  Tired of me-centered praying.  It began to rub me the wrong way. 

Have you ever had that experience in a conversation where you realize for the last ten minutes you've been talking about yourself, completely forgetting that you're actually in conversation with another person?

Do your prayers ever sound that way?  Can you relate?

Enter the lectionary.

Each day of the lectionary includes written prayers for morning and evening.  Written by someone else, they took my out of my natural prayer language.  It was very uncomfortable at first.  I'd read them and then think, "Well, now I have to pray still, because that wasn't MY prayer.  That's not what I would say."  Then I had to ask myself why it wasn't what I would say.  Hmm....  Good question.  The Lord's Prayer isn't exactly what I'd say either.  Hmmm...  Now we're getting somewhere.

14 Week Prayer Challenge

I'm issuing a challenge.  Join me for the next 14 weeks in praying with the lectionary.  Experience prayer of a different voice.  If you miss a day, a week - no biggie, the point is - TRY.  If you don't have the app - download it today!  Get praying!  Start with morning or evening, doesn't matter to me, but dive in so you know what we're talking about.

We'll spend the next 14 weeks examining these prayers together and seeing what's unexpected, how they prompt us, how we can take them off the page and into our lives.  I'd love to hear your thoughts along the way, so please comment - it makes a big difference in turning this into an actual conversation :)

If you aren't a techie person, or if you have a phone obsessed kid like I do (already at the age of 18mos. agh!!!!), or you love the feel of paper and a hardback book makes you smile (hello, friend) you can purchase the Book of Common Prayer - starting page 496. 

So gear up, because we start on Monday!  Who's in?