Rest.

Rest and Sabbath are two things that I have not always done well with in my walk with Christ, but in the past several years, God has helped me to see these  as a pattern and a priority he’s established for my benefit.  I appreciate Mark’s thoughts on this topic and bringing it up.

The whole idea of centering prayer that he mentions is actually an old Quaker practice.  Just like Mark says at the very beginning of the chapter, that “prayer is the way in which I hear Jesus calling from the center of my life”, Quakers would gather in times of silence to slow down and let all the distractions and noise of life stop.  And in that silence, they were able to more fully hear God speak.  This is part of the reason why we have times of silence occasionally on Sunday mornings in Flipd or on retreats, like we did at the Marvelous Mystery Tour this past weekend.

From what Mark shared in this chapter, how would you explain contemplation in your own words?

Share about one of the prayer experiences that you did and what your response to it was.

Compassion

Compassion is an area that God has done a lot of work on my heart in over the last few years.  When I was growing up, my first tendency was to be judgmental rather than compassionate.  I really appreciate that quote from Henri Nouwen that Mark included that said “In order to be of service to others, we have…to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus become free to be compassionate.”  I was so intent on judging and evaluating people growing up that I had no space for compassion in my life.

How about you?  What in this chapter stuck out to you and caught your eye?

Tell us about 2 of your prayer experiences this week.

Suffering

Wow.  This chapter gets right to the tough stuff.  One of the aspects of this book that I’ve really appreciated so far is that Mark doesn’t avoid the hard parts of prayer…he gets right into the thick of it.

The presence of suffering is something that has perplexed people for centuries.  Mark offers some great suggestions on how to think about it & some practices for dealing with suffering in your own life.  One of my favorite musicians wrote a song about this difficulty of understanding suffering.  Rich Mullins actually died before he was able to record the song (which makes the song all the more meaningful), but you can check out someone else’s interpretation of the song here.

Start by telling me about what in this chapter really stuck out to you.  Why?

There are 4 experiences this week.  Remember that I’d like you to try out every experience each week (by spreading them out throughout the week).  Please write about 2 out of the 4 experiences here (but you can journal about all of your prayer experiences in your journal : ).

Looking forward to reading your reflections and experiences.

Fear

(Make sure that you have posted and responded to the prior weeks before beginning this week.)

It’s been great reading your responses so far.  Make sure to take your time and fully answer the questions.  There aren’t many this week, so take a little longer with your answers.  And don’t forget to write your requests, thoughts, dreams, and about your experiences in your prayer journals!

Fear is something everyone struggles with.  Some people hide it more than others and people have different fears, but we all have them.  Fears change some, too, as we get older.  Some things you’re afraid of now, you won’t be later, but other fears may replace them.  God’s presence of peace and hope in the midst of fear is one of my favorite parts of faith.  It’s so helpful to know that someone much bigger than you is present with you in every situation.

What’s something that stuck with you from this week’s reading or that has left you thinking?

What prayer experience did you try and what was it like?