The Berlin Wall and My Brain’s Pleasure Center

Posted on March 7, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

statues made from the Berlin Wall at the FDR Library

Thank YOU, God, for a truly remarkable season of PRAYER as part of the HIM 2010 Conference Prayer Team! And now, this morning I am entering into a Day of Rest. Protected by You, God, from BUSY.

At lunch yesterday I suggested to a conference speaker that he would make a good pastor. He said OH NO! I laughed and we agreed it was an impossible job. Afterwards, I talked with a friend about the burnout rate among pastors.

My take, God, is that the basic assumptions are wrong.

I Peter 2:9 says “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood”. Now, God, I believe Peter was talking about all of us — not just the clergy. But here we are with the clergy doing WAY TOO MUCH. Getting WAY TOO BUSY!

I remember Dr. Hart lecturing on how being BUSY — over time — builds a WALL around the PLEASURE CENTER of our brain. The small and simple pleasures can’t get OVER THE WALL! Dr. Hart said that after a while the person enters the state of ANHEDONIA — they are unable to feel pleasure — they are numb. They are then susceptible to things like Adultery, Gambling, Racing . . . things that are risky and give them a hit of adrenalin to GET THEM OVER THE WALL.

It made me think of the Berlin Wall that for so many years imprisoned the people of East Berlin. But that wall was visible. People could see it. They knew it was there. How much more effective is a wall we can’t see.

Sigh, please God, help us to picture a Wall around our Pleasure Center — help us SEE that proper rest and balanced living — will keep the wall low enough for small pleasures to walk in. Yes, God! Today while I rest, YOU will tear down the wall I’ve built this week!

Posted in A weekly day of rest, an invitation to abundant life, appreciation, busy, busy as an attack strategy, sabbath rest

Rainbows and Prayers

Posted on March 6, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Rainbow over midtown Honolulu

Good Morning God!

This photo was taken (at a red light) on my way to the Prayer Workshop Thursday morning. At that point it was actually a double rainbow. But I was thrilled to capture what I did! It seemed like an omen — a promise of your faithfulness.

Then this morning, as I was pondering what image I could use to talk about Prayer, I thought — THE RAINBOW!

Yesterday, in the HIM Conference Prayer Room I experienced two hours of incredible PRAYER — that doesn’t even describe it. I SAW / FELT YOUR HAND bringing about CONNECTIONS. First, we began the morning standing in a circle — holding hands and praying out loud. Then one team member wrote out a prayer card for her son and handed it to me as I was the “Host”. God, you moved in MY heart and I WROTE out a card for my oldest daughter. Yes, God, I remember trying to get by with just TALKING my prayer request! After I read my card out loud at our small prayer table the woman next to me said “I could have written that prayer!” Then the women next to her said “I could have written that prayer, word for word!” And all five of us at that prayer table had the same prayer — the same hearts’ desire. We were all oldest daughters — praying for our oldest child.

In a few minutes it got even better as a young man we had prayed for came back for more prayer for his “food poisoning.” It was a friend of the woman’s son and we were able to pray specifically for deeper inner healing for the same trauma that had befallen her son! GLORIOUS! WHAT TIMING! WHAT INNER PREPARATION!

Dear Lord God, how can I even begin to thank You for being part of that healing prayer? How I wish EVERYONE could EXPERIENCE just HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THEM AND DESIRE TO HELP AND HEAL US!!!!

THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!

Posted in healing, Heavens declare the Glory of God, JOY, letting the Holy Spirit flow through us, Light shining through, Prayer, sacred space, the JOY of praying together

Consider the lilies of the water

Posted on March 5, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

A water lily at the Honolulu Convention Center

Oh God, consider the work of Your Hands! Look at the beauty of this simple water lily! Nothing seems too small or too evanescent for You to give loving attention to.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:28-29

This is a vast comfort to me, God. You are SO FAR BEYOND OUR COMPREHENSION — yet we can recognize the beauty of the world You have created.

And as I prayed with and for people last evening, I could feel Your Love for them — feel a small portion of YOUR COMPASSION for them. You who lavish care on the lilies of the field (and the water) CARE FOR US. Tonight we were privileged to pray with a husband and wife, sister and granddaughter who came to seek prayer for her mother. The whole family had gathered to request prayer. What a gift of love! What a joy to pray for her — to pray for them. And now on to a new day. Thank You, God for all that will be in it!

Posted in LOVE, power and peace and gentleness, Prayer

Letting God’s Light Shine

Posted on March 4, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Honolulu 2010 Conference Let Your Light Shine

Oh Dearest God, what JOY! I’ve been meeting friends at the airport as they came flying in — yesterday and today — preparing to come to the PARTY! And that is just what it is, God, a PARTY! Honolulu 2010 Christian Conference is 4,000 people of all ages and all denominations coming together to Praise You and Worship You. That is the JOY part of the gathering.

That JOY is still in my heart because of our Prayer Team gathering last night — a lovely time of prayer. Then Cynthia and friends and I went over to the room where Christie Pierce will be talking on Inner Healing — Healing What Hurts Most. And that prayer time was CHICKEN SKIN. You know, God, AWE is a good word, but it doesn’t begin to cover YOUR UNSEEN PRESENCE — Unseen but not unfelt.

Worship and Prayer — Adoration and Joy — are the foundation stones of the Conference. But there is so much MORE! Talks and training for pastors and lay leaders and just plain folks on hundreds of topics. Ah, but God, as for my small part on the Prayer Team, it is about Your Deep Desire to set us free from guilt, regret, addictions, fears, traumas, and assorted difficulties and pains. Physical healing is remarkable — like our friend David who was healed of many years of post polio nerve damage and pain. When someone who has used two canes for years starts walking normally — that brings JOY.

And I’m praying for LOTS of physical healings! Ah, but the deep inner healing — to me that’s the real work of Your Spirit. So, God, THANK YOU! Thank YOU that I get to go and get to pray. Please, God, clean me up and get me OUT OF YOUR WAY! And now I’m off to go to hear Don Williams speak at the Prayer Intensive from 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Posted in Being ENJOYED by God, breathing in Your Spirit, clapping our hands in joy, connecting, JOY, Prayer

Inner Paths of the Heart

Posted on March 3, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

View from the Dillingham Transportation Building

Good Morning, God

It just struck me that my life is fairly orderly. Orderly is maybe too positive word — I just resisted saying ROUTINE.. Do I feel negative about this? I’m not sure, but I do travel on a minimum of paths. I mostly go where I have been before.

This view out the window of the ladies room on the second floor shows paths I haven’t walked on. Hm. I guess walking is the best way to explore a new path. New Paths. New Views. They help me look and see — as opposed to autopilot travel — where often I don’t look because I know.

But, as I am saying this — the thought comes to me — that I might possibly be seeing my family and friends through “autopilot” eyes. That is NOT a good thought. Part of the blessing of being with another person is to be wide open to his or her uniqueness.

So, God, maybe this meandering contemplation of paths has more to do with INNER TRAVEL than it does simply taking a new route back to the parking garage. Each person is a GIFT waiting to be enjoyed. . . to be see . . . to be heard . . . to be laughed with.

Today at lunch a friend from California shared how she wanted a house where people from around the world could come and dine together — share ideas — open their hearts to each other. She wants it kid friendly so people can come with their families. She can SEE just what it looks like. She is believing that YOU are in this. I believe it too. How good it was to hear her heart! It was as if she walked me into her heart to look and see what she saw — to travel her inner paths with her. Ah, God! Thank you! This is the very best kind of travel!

Posted in inner paths of the heart, people as gifts

The Face of Hope and Africa Works

Posted on March 2, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A farmer in Mozambique with her first bean crop

Good Morning, God,

This woman is so happy! When I took the photo I thought it was just because she was harvesting her first bean crop — on land that Africa Works had irrigated.

But I’ve just heard a talk by Samuel Grottis the founder of Africa Works — and now I understand. She is smiling because she has a future!

I didn’t understand the current reality of rural life at ALL! I didn’t know that with dry land farming she might harvest a crop once every 2 years — a low yield crop from stunted plants. Understanding takes information AND time to digest it, doesn’t it God.

Her village of around 500 people had gone to Africa Works and gotten an infrastructure loan — and are now pumping water up from the Limpopo River onto their fields. Her first crop was harvested in just 5 months.

Now she has FOOD SECURITY! She and her family will not go hungry. She will sell enough beans to pay back the loan for the seed and fertilizer and some toward the infrastructure loan and some into her savings. Africa Works provides technical assistants — local people who teach and explain what it takes to do commercial farming. Africa Works helps with the marketing as well as setting things up. When the loan is repaid, Africa Works will use it to help other farmers.

Winnowing beans the old way -- letting the chaff blow away

This village was told that the land could “support” 50 families. They talked together and came back and told Africa Works — we want to share with others in our village — let’s cut the plot size in half and have 100 families farm it. And that is what they did. Caring for one another is built into us, isn’t God.

Caring for the land — Mother Earth — was part of traditional cultures. Ah, but then Enter Civilization stage left.

Stewards — You made us stewards over the land — caretakers and caregivers. Help us, God to see that helping farmers make a living — is far better than sending them off to the cities for jobs that aren’t there — not yet — maybe never.

Thank you for Samuel Grottis and Africa Works. I think this might be YOUR CURRENT BEST PLAN FOR ELIMINATING POVERTY.

Posted in a hand up, Africa Works, helping farmers, Self sufficiency

Cows on the Commons

Posted on March 1, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Cows pasturing in Swiss meadows

Ah God, isn’t this a glorious part of Your World? I love Switzerland — I loved walking up the mountains with the cows all around me placidly eating the grass. And that was before I knew HOW IMPORTANT it is to have our food — grass based.

But the real point of this photo is that Elinor Ostrom (first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics) points out that Commons CAN WORK. In fact, the Swiss sensibly combine private land ownership in the valleys with Commons up in the high pastures. The reason is that rainfall up there is unpredictable — spotty — so that they can’t tell which would be the best land to own. So sharing — letting the cows go to the good areas — is like a form of insurance. Over time they all benefit most by the use of Commons. A profound show of Common Sense!

Of course, running a Commons takes Communication, Rules made by those involved and Consequences or as she calls it “graduated sanctions” — it sounds so SENSIBLE. Elinor Ostrom said one of the eight keys is to Build responsibility for governing the common resource in nested tiers from the lowest level up to the entire interconnected system. To put that more clearly she said I’m not against government. I’m just against the idea that it’s got to be some bureaucracy that figures everything out for people.

God, I was SO THANKFUL to read this article (yesmagazing.org/issues …elinor-ostrom). Thankful because it confirms what I have experienced — that YOU did do a LOVELY job of designing us! We CAN work together for our common good — IF WE TALK TO EACH OTHER — really talk and really listen. And if we can overcome the foolish illusion that more stuff will make us happy or successful. Thank YOU, God!

Posted in a new view of Commons, Common Sense

Tsunamis and Thanksgivings

Posted on February 28, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Sky over Kalanianaole Highway

THANK YOU,GOD, THANK YOU!

This morning is a quiet, rainy, Sabbath Day — and our home is still here. In fact, the bath tub is still filled with water — to be used if the water system was shut off or destroyed. The sounds of the SIREN have gone — the siren that went off yesterday at 6:00 a.m. to WARN US of a possible tsunami — a BIG tsunami.

The quiet, gentle, tsunami has come and gone — pulling water out of our bay and then flowing in again. Thank YOU, God!

And the tsunami of adrenalin inside me has come and gone, too — leaving me AWARE of all sorts of things. Certainly I am far more aware that nothing here on Earth lasts. You would think Earthquakes would make that point — and they do, sort of. But the FEELING that my HOME might be WASHED AWAY — EVERYTHING GONE — that feeling is a true wake up call. Yes, BIG FEARS are useful.

I am mindful of 2 Chronicles 7:14:
if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.

But, what, God, does that LOOK LIKE in MY DAILY LIFE?

I remember thinking, as I left with Kit and my computer, for a friends’ home higher up our valley — Gosh, and I’d JUST cleaned and readied our two guest rooms, too. Now, I know, God, that preparing guest rooms for guests is not a foolish waste of time. But, it makes me think WHAT LASTS? C.S. Lewis responded by saying WE LAST! Friendships last — Family lasts — all that is GIVEN to YOU lasts. Yes, and I am here — here NOW — asking You for help in how my life — my daily waking around life — could change. OH! Not so much change for You — as RESPOND to You! Thank YOU!

Posted in becoming the change I wish to see, Centering Prayer, courage to see myself, God's Provision, gratitude, Help me to see, sabbath dreaming, thankfulness, Thanksgiving!

My Lizard Brain and Centering Prayer

Posted on February 27, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Australian frilled lizard Photo by Belinda Wright

Guess WHAT, God? Right after talking about small hidden fears I listened to Seth Godin’s book Linchpin and he was talking about our Lizard Brain — the part that WANTS to KEEP US AFRAID — TO KEEP US SAFE. Thanks, God, for having the timing just right!

It really helps me to go back over a thought — especially this thought. I really don’t like the idea of having fears. I attribute that to some Viking genes. It feels like warriors are afraid of being afraid.

Seth Godin said our Lizard brain deals in Fear, Anger, Revenge, Food and Sex. The basics. And here we sit with our SMART Neocortex (Human Brain) thinking we are in charge — only to be blocked, sabotaged, or hijacked by our LIZARD Brain. Dang!

I knew we had a Reptilian Brain — but I thought it just dealt in anger — because I’ve seen the anger. I find it incredibly useful to realize that it also deals in FEAR! Real basic fears — like the FEAR of standing out and being noticed. It isn’t smart enough to get us to stop smoking or overeating because of a “theoretical future fear.”

What to do? Seth Godin says he finds it helpful to say OUT LOUD what the Lizard Brain is telling him. That seems to embarrass the Lizard — being caught like that. Of course, the problem is to CATCH the Lizard’s whispered fear.

Perhaps it isn’t too surprising, God, that after I sit quietly in Centering Prayer, I get up more FOCUSED. After all, that Centering Prayer is all about letting go of my thoughts as they come — and letting YOU have my Mind between thoughts!

Yes, God, THAT WOULD make a noticeable difference. Help me do it OFTEN!

Posted in Centering Prayer, Quieting my Lizard Brain

Charging Elephants and small snakelike fears

Posted on February 26, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Elephant charging our Land Rover in Swaziland

Good Morning, God.

When this elephant charged our Land Rover I was TERRIFIED! I was sitting in the back — therefore the CLOSEST. There were 2 or 3 seconds in which he was gaining on us — LONG SECONDS — then we pulled away.

Fear like that is easy to identify. You know it. And after it’s over there is almost hysterical relief. Once we were safe we laughed and laughed.

But a couple of years ago, God, You began to show me that there were HIDDEN FEARS in my life. Fears I wasn’t conscious of.

I remember asking You, God, HOW am I supposed to find them WHEN THEY ARE HIDDEN? You suggested I write down all the things I THOUGHT I WANTED TO DO, BUT HADN’T DONE — then pray about what FEAR might be holding me back.

There at the top was LOOSING WEIGHT! I thought, WHAT’S SCARY ABOUT THAT! But I did pray — and You revealed my fear of being different. Because to CHANGE what I ate — to avoid grains — would make me different. Now, God! You MADE us DIFFERENT. I THINK I like being different.

But, as I sat and prayed, I could feel the deep childhood fear of being odd — an outcast – different and ejected from the “group.” It was an OLD DEEP HIDDEN FEAR — and it IS STILL POWERFUL!

But becoming AWARE of it — helped me to PRAY about it — to LAUGH about it. And, I lost weight. NOW I hear You telling me — GO BACK TO THE LIST! Let’s FIND THE NEXT CLUMP OF SMALL SNAKELIKE FEARS HIDING UNDER THE ROCK OF CONSCIOUSNESS — ENTANGLING FEARS!

You really do WANT TO SET ME FREE – ALL OF US FREE! Thank YOU — THANK You.

Posted in acknowledging my need for prayer, authority over my life, courage to see myself, finding hidden fears, small hidden fears