When the pandemic began 14 months ago, I knew that schedules would be all over the place. I needed something to ground me. So I began in several practices to engage my soul. One was reading the Daily Lectionary office each day. That means there is a Psalm reading, an Old Testament Reading, and a New Testament reading everyday. Usually they are thematically related. Silence and journaling my prayers have also been soul practices that have nurtured me.
Beyond those, I rediscovered poetry. While in college through early ministry, poetry engaged my imagination and taught me how to communicate in word pictures. Due to a number of reasons, I stopped reading and soaking in poetry in my life. Recently however, poetry has filled my imagination again. Poetry is language slowed down. For the best poets, you have to soak in every word in order to see what the poet is saying in your mind.
My favorite poet is George Herbert. He was a 17th century Anglican priest who kept most of his poems private. On his deathbed, he gave some to a friend who then widely printed and distributed. His work still lives on today. In fact each Sunday I read an Herbert poem before preaching called “The Window.” He asks, “Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word? He is a brittle crazy glass: Yet in they temple thou dost him afford this glorious and transcendent place, to be a window, through thy grace.” Those lines become prayer for me as I walk into our transcendent and beautiful sanctuary.
The poem I’ve recently lived with of Herberts is “Prayer 1.” He gives 27 different word picture of prayer. He calls prayer, “God’s breath in man returning to his birth; the soul in paraphrase; the six-days-world transposing in an hour. . . .soul’s blood.” Each phrase deserves its own contemplation. The line that stands out to me the most currently is “Heaven in the ordinary.” That’s what we do when we pray. We bring heaven in the ordinary places of our lives. Reminds me of Jesus’ line, “let thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When you pray this week, think about heaven invading the ordinary places in your life and let that image fill you with gratitude today.
What has fed your soul over the past 14 months?