Music Prompts

11/17/09
Without Music Life Would B♭---that’s what the t-shirt said in my latest “Wireless” catalog. Flat, indeed. It certainly rings true to me, even though I don’t stay “plugged in” like the teens at Houston High. I don’t even have my new iPod Touch (free) synced with my new iMac (not free) computer yet. Both are sources of frustration that could prompt me to tears.
I don’t always have music playing in the car or at home as many folks do. I do have my new "Tenors’ Christmas" CD playing now because this blog “prompted” me to put it in my iTunes. I also have it as loud as it will go because, in my opinion, opera should be played with VOLUME!

Music is a part of the life of the Lord, creator of all music. His delight in me can prompt Him to sing as well. According to Zephaniah 3:15 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Music often prompts tears for me. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is my favorite hymn and it always puts a knot in my throat and, more often than not, tears in my eyes. It was “my” song for seating as “mother of the bride”---so I had a special hanky handy. Special church services often include it as well, so I try to “gear up” but…….but if Peggy catches my eye from the choir loft and smiles, I “puddle.”
Music can prompt tears.

Church seems to turn over the Liles “tickle boxes,” as Daddy labeled my giggling fits of childhood, especially if we’re suppose to be quiet and somber. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” is my favorite Christmas Carol and that causes no problems--- but let us sing “We Three Kings” and we all tend to fall apart. At least, we look askance at Larry who sings it loud and clear and in his “own key,” ---if there is such. It’s our family thing---an inside joke that happened each year during our Advent time (#3). It was shared with friends and even our Jewish neighbors who had heard about it.
Music can prompt laughter.

Whenever the Temptations “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” plays, Larry and I dance---regardless of where we are! He thinks I’ll probably try to rise up for one last dance, if he has it played at my funeral.
I also admit to doing a little toe tapping in church whenever I hear, "Lord of the Dance.”
Music can prompt dancing.

Whether on a praise walk or cleaning the house, a little music can help me to pick up the pace. Volume seems to help here as well.
Music can prompt energy.

Larry’s new “cash for clunkers” jeep came with a year’s subscription (free) to Sirius XM satellite radio. I don’t have that feature in my “old lady Cadillac,” so if I don’t have an audio book for travel, I choose his car. That way I can select the "60s on 6" channel and listen to music that I know the words to or can at least “understand” the lyrics.
Singing along favorite hymns or praise choruses brings an element of fellowship that is rich. However, I rarely sing out at church because I don’t have that gift. But I’ll “sing in the shower” or sing along with iTunes. I have numerous versions of “Come Thou Fount” and when I get to verse 3, I can belt it out---it rings so true, ..........................

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Music can prompt singing along.

Everyone knows that a quiet lullaby can help soothe a baby to sleep, unless his name is Josh Liles. With him, Larry turned the car radio on and drove him around (sometimes at midnight) just so I could sleep. I have friends who keep music going at bedtime to dispel the quiet and ease them into slumber.
Music can prompt rest/sleep.

Music is the international language. I have heard the melody of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” sung by children at a zoo in Venezuela and recognized it even before the E-I—E-I—Os. I heard Silent Night in German and knew the English version because of years of singing it with my family. Music sticks with us and both melody and lyrics can trigger memories.
Music lingers and prompts our thoughts .

My friend, Carol Newman, sent this e-mail message to me. “The God who created music has songs for resting, songs for dancing, and songs of rejoicing over you!"

The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life." Psalm 42

“His song” is music to my ears and prompts praise from my heart.

Manner of Meditating

11/16/09
A full measure of the Word and prayer each day (especially Monday for me) gives a healthy and powerful life." --Andrew Murray

Years ago, Nancy Stephenson introduced me to Madame Guyon (1647-1717) through Guyon’s autobiography written while she was being held at the infamous Bastille. Guyon advocated time alone in prayer and meditation. She also taught the Reformation principles of sola gracia (grace alone) and sola fide. (faith alone)

Centuries ago, Guyon espoused the same idea which we have been using each “Meditating Monday.” It’s just encouraging to read it from someone who had a real handle on a timeless truth. (Spiritual Progress
or Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul 
from the French of Fenelon and Madame Guyon"; 
Printed in 1853; Chapter 2)

Here’s what Madame Guyon had to say:

Meditative reading is the choosing (of) some important practical or speculative truth, always preferring the practical, and proceeding thus: whatever truth you have chosen, read only a small portion of it, endeavoring to taste and digest it, to extract the essence and substance of it, and proceed no farther while any savor or relish remains in the passage: then take up your book again, and proceed as before, seldom reading more than half a page at a time.

It is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit. (Guyon, p.3)

Her “manner of meditating” leads to prayer or prayerful consideration. (My THOTS, exactly---Trusting Him On This Scripture)

When by an act of lively faith, you are placed in the presence of God, read some truth wherein there is substance; pause gently thereon, not to employ the reason, but merely to fix the mind; observing that the principal exercise should ever be the presence of God, and that the subject, therefore, should rather serve to stay the mind, than exercise it in reasoning.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13, NASB)

Let’s go directly to Him, our Source, for our refreshment. Quit turning to self. Put down those shovels. We’re digging ourselves into a hole. Our cisterns, based on our work, relationships, prestige/credentials, pseudo-power/control and our own strength are so “leaky.” Cisterns of “self” won’t even hold water.

"Come all ye that are athirst to the living waters, nor lose your precious moments in hewing out cisterns that will hold no water.”

Today let’s meditate as Guyon and those faithful ones of past centuries did ---Come ye famishing souls, who find nought to satisfy you; come, and ye shall be filled!

Prayer Proddings

11/13/09 Prayer.....what does it really take to get you moving in this area? I had to ask myself this question? Some of the prompts mentioned earlier seem like prods---cattle prods. You know, the ones that shock you into action. Visible clues. Verbal requests. Pray ‘til you feel like praying is an answer/prod that is often given.

Is it the place that is needed? Anywhere will do. Is it the time? Anytime is good. Is it the position? You can always kneel (bow) in your heart.

Is there a right or wrong way to pray? Is it inadequacy in word choice? “Lord all my desire is before Thee.” (Psalm 38:9) What do words matter if He has the desire of my heart!

Maybe it’s the definition of prayer. Simply put, prayer is an “application of your heart to God.” (A Short & Very Easy
Method of Prayer p.1)

Maybe it’s the viewpoint. View it as a privilege or an opportunity rather than just a command.

Prayers are more than petitions for our “horizontal” lives. Prayers are vertical---upward. Prayers are onward---continual. Prayers are God-ward---for His glory.

“To Him who is everywhere, men come, not by traveling but by loving.” (St. Augustine)

My prayer for you is that your praying will become a blessed practice that continues even when you’re not speaking or listening but applying your heart to His in true communion.

No more external prodding will be needed.

PRAYER PROMPTS... on your agenda

11/12/09 Those e-mails said folks I’ve never met in Germany, Holland and France were praying for me. What prompted those prayers? God’s Spirit? Fellowship with other believers? Hearing a siren yesterday, I prayed---for both the injured/ill one and for his/her loved ones as well. God can certainly use both people and circumstances to prompt prayers. Someone stopping us, in a hallway or at the grocery, and requesting prayer can be a big prompt. Often I have to pray right then or say that I will pray as God leads so that I don’t give a false hope---as this old mind doesn’t hold on to requests as it once did. I know what it’s like to count on others to fervently and earnestly pray. I also know that prayer is so-o-o-o much more than petitions. Yet, I can trust Him enough to pour out my heart, my sorrows and my burdens for others and allow Him to work these according to good.

Michèle’s recent blog, “The Problem with Prayer” states, “It’s a topic I both love and hate to discuss, mostly because it’s so nebulous. And yet…it’s also powerful and life-altering and sanity-preserving.”

There is indeed a deep mystery to prayer. Even knowing that prayer is the span that links us to a holy God can be overwhelming. But what a privilege! Devote yourselves to prayer…” (Colossians 4:2) ”pray for one another.” (James 5:16b) These sound more intentional than just running into people or hearing a siren.

What about intentional prayer prompts? My “agenda” prayer prompts for intercession (praying for others), as many know, are scheduled by day---my former prayer group people are prayed for on the weekday that I was assigned for each of them back in the mid-80s---others have been added to these days, often alliteratively. I keep this list with me in my calendar. I have committed to pray for Sarah Young’s health and her prayer prompt is in my lap each time I read her Jesus Calling book. My Weeping Wednesdays prompt me to pray prayers of confession. My 7:00 Saturday morning is my church prayer time that extends in to prayer for children and grandchildren of friends. My big old prayer chair is a very visible prompt that it's time to pray!

When we have had scheduled prayer times with Him, preceded by being quiet and worshipping God in His glory----then we can, as François Fénelon recommended, “Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation -- speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be.”


Without set times of prayer, the spirit of prayer will be dull and feeble. Without the continual prayerfulness, the set times will not avail.--Andrew Murray This sounds like a juxtaposition of planned and unplanned prayers to me.

Spur-of-the-moment prayer prompts. Are you alert to them?
Intentional prayer prompts. What will yours be?

PRAYER PROMPTS

11/11/09 Prayer is to be on-going----“pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) So how does one do that? What prompts one to pray?

Years ago Mother was on a plane from Nashville to New York and at take-off the passengers were advised that there was a problem and to please assume crash position. The plane then turned sharply heading back to the airport. Immediately Mother began to pray.

Crisis is a great prayer prompt.

Mother said that she felt a real sense of peace as she prayed and was assured that I would take care of Daddy. She lived many years after that chaotic landing. Since her death it has been my brother, Bobby, who is Daddy’s main caregiver. Just remembering that, fills me with gratitude and I begin to pray for Bobby.

Gratitude is also a great prayer prompt.

Today is Veteran’s Day. I am reminded to pray for Daddy and lift praises for my favorite “purple heart” vet.

Holidays and celebrations are great prayer/praise prompts.

The biopsy was positive, your spouse has walked out, the injury resulted in paralysis. (Psalm 119:71)

Affliction is a great prayer prompt.

Amy Carmichael said, “Do we ever bring His own words to Him and find that He turns away? Never.” (Edges of His Ways, p. 204)

Scripture is a great prayer prompt.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) theologian said, “The true spirit of prayer is no other than God's own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to converse with him by prayer.”

God’s Spirit is a great prayer prompt.

Panic prayers, grateful prayers, fearful prayers, and breath prayers are all links that connect us to God day in and day out. But what about those times when we don’t know how to pray? What to pray? Prompt without the purpose.

26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27 (ESV)

Perfect prayer from the Perfect Prompter.

PRAYER PONDERINGS

11/10/09
Because of technical difficulties with my Word program---probably me---today’s blog just got changed to what I can control by cutting and pasting with minimal typing. Hopefully, “Prayer Prompts” will follow tomorrow.
I have included some prayer quotes by scholars/theologians,---mainly from authors whose writings I have read.

Let me know if any speak to your heart! Or share a new one with me that is meaningful to you. Ponder away…….

• Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God. --Andrew Murray

• Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? --Corrie Ten Boom

• We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. --Oswald Chambers

• To pray is to listen to the One who calls you "my beloved daughter," "my beloved son," "my beloved child." To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being. --Henri Nouwen

• When we sing, 'Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,' we are not thinking of the nearness of place, but of the nearness of relationship.……We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts. --A.W. Tozer

• In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. --John Bunyan

• There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. --Brother Lawrence
  

3M

11/9/09……… Monday’s meditation musings
“When He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything.” A Streams in the Desert entry that I read while in Dallas, encouraged the practice of being alone. Sometimes this involves dismissing the crowd just as Jesus did. (See Matt. 14:22.) Even well-meaning people can be a distraction when we’re trying to be alone with Him---seeking more of His dust. (“….until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there.” John 8:8)

May our (my) soul yearn for, and practice that kind of solitude in times of meditation with Him. May we (I) practice dismissing the crowd. May we (I) “Be still and know”---He is God; (Psa. 46:10)

5 Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us,
There is none to compare with You
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count

6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.

7 Then I said, "Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart."

9 I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
O LORD, You know.

10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.

11 You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
(Psalm 40:5-11)

May I practice Thy Presence today---within my practice of solitude---just Me and Thee---heart to heart, beating as one.

GLORY BUMPS

“GLORY BUMPS”
11/8/09 Glory bumps……………an ljj e-mail informed me of this pithy term---2 short words with a big connotation. It’s similar to the goose bumpy feeling that one gets when reading a Hallmark card or a story that touches the heart. But “glory bumps” are more than that. Glory bumps are precipitated by an awareness of a “God thing” --- those incidences in our lives with a spiritual connection. God incidences--not coincidences! Glory bumps might result from seeing a miracle or a moving of God’s hand or just from experiencing the grand sense of LIFE that is beyond our comprehension/understanding.

That term, “Glory bumps,” has given me “pause to ponder” today. I have had more than my share of glory bumps these past 11 months. Here are a few of the earthly unexplainable incidences that come to mind and keep me all “a shiver” to the depths of my being.

MAC GLORY BUMPS

1. Michèle---a fellow MAC cancer survivor found by “my” Molly’s tireless “google” search before I even knew much more that the name of my very rare cancer---certainly not the extent of it. Meeting her stateside was a lifetime of glory bumps—one giganic glory bump in and of itself.

2. The Ridleys---Mary Flo and Dave who opened their home and their hearts to me in Dallas before God even completely secured my team there. (Thanks to Sally Klinke, a 1st Evan friend, and her “best friend” connection to Kari S. at Park Cities Pres in Dallas, who knows Mary Flo very well) The Ridleys continued to open their home for each subsequent surgery and for my bevy of nurses that accompanied me. I now call them friends---dear, dear friends.

3. My Team---only God leading Dr. Louis Carter from Africa and Dr. George Burruss from Memphis to a team in Dallas that went full circle from an original recommendation from Dr. Jay Burns (son Buddy’s friend in Dallas) to UT Medical, to Methodist Germantown, to St. Louis, Houston, Dallas Southwestern, and back to Dallas Baylor and Dr. Richard Ha at Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute, office of Dr. Fritz Barton, Dr. Rod Rohrich, (friends of Dr. Carter) and their colleague, Dr. Burns---Buddy’s friend! What a full circle---one that truly reflects the hand of God!

4. Jesus Calling---the little devotional book by Sarah Young that has kept so many of my family, friends, and cyberspace acquaintances on the “same page.” My family tried, unsuccessfully, to find info about this special author on-line, but to no avail. But God………..through a forwarded e-mail from friend, Beth, located her for me. We have since been in touch (from Memphis to Nashville to Overland, KS and to Perth, Australia) Sarah has become a prayer partner and encourager. I hope I have become the same for her.

5. dotsydetails.blogspot.com---Last January, I didn’t even know what a blog was ---but God…………has used it as a way to connect with so-o-o many folks, both known and unknown to me. The blog has allowed others to view “my Dance” with all my missteps and challenges and to learn with me along the way.

6. Prayer---from the first one I prayed on January 10, 2009 after reading the Jesus Calling entry from that day. “Lord, if it doesn’t matter for eternity, may the storm that’s coming into my life not be cancer.” (It was very much cancer--a very rare cancer--so I knew it mattered.)

• Jeff White, pastor at Park Cities Presbyterian in Dallas, during staff prayer time “chose” my name and realized that he in fact, knew that name because Larry Liles had been his racquetball coach at UM. I now know what it feels like to be “be lifted up in prayer”---like a calm after the “glory bumps.”

• Surgery Day prayers at First Evan

• My name above Dr. Albritton's desk to remind him to pray.
  

• Muslim student telling me that she had never seen faith like mine.

• Worldwide prayer warriors---it would take pages to explain the breadth and depth.

• Brother Buddy and Charlotte being baptized Easter “09---it has mattered for eternity and that’s all that really matters.

7. Connections and Reconnections---distant family, my 4th grade teacher, life long friends, high school chums, college roomies, Rawls Hall folks, Pi Phis, former students (and their parents and grandparents) HHS faculty and staff, 42 years of education colleagues and new cyberspace acquaintances-----to name a few.

8. BEST possible outcomes for each surgery. The first prognosis was so grim that Larry asked the docs about tattooing me so that he would know for sure that he would be taking home his wife. I am indeed a “walking miracle” as Ann E. dubbed me. “The most astonishing thing about miracles is that they do happen.” G.K. Chesterton

9. Insurance coming through at just the right time on several occasions-----11th hour took on new meaning!

10. “Puddle Experiences”---a result of too many glory bumps at once—which reduce me to tears! The surprise from friends who lined the end of my street in March with balloons and posters to send me off on the first surgical part of my MAC journey, immediately comes to mind.

GLORY BUMPS, INDEED!!

MY REMINDERS OF GOD’S GOODNESS! I TREASURE EACH ONE OF THEM---THOUGH THE NUMBERS ARE TOO HIGH TO COUNT!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

Stay Abed Day

11/7/09
Somehow the 8+ hour trip from Dallas to Memphis seems to have taken its toll----and I don’t mean $$. I am wiped out! This is definitely a “stay abed” kind of day.

Now all I have to do is grant myself permission for this endeavor. It feels inactive. Inactivity is what I need. So----what’s the problem? I need to legitimize “staying abed” or otherwise, guilt will have me up and groping around and trying to look productive. Or, if I “stay abed” with my mind in a “stew” because of the guilt, I’ll further compound the issue.
Scripture is the “legitimate” answer.

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31)

I think I’ll have Larry resurrect Cathy Hasting’s recipe for “Stay-Abed Stew.” That’s a legitimate 7 hours of cooking with the added benefit of a sweet aroma. Sweet aroma of stew and scripture---the perfect/legitimate way to spend the day.

(2 Corinthians 2:14)
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (--even the bed)

Clutter control

11/6/09 ……………….is needed in my life. Too many options. Too many “just in case” locations for items---even though they might be color coded according to the room or drawer where they "should be" found. This random organizing is understood only by me and lately, even I have trouble remembering where things are, or "should be". Retrieval is most difficult, if not impossible. I’ve been to enough “organizing seminars to know that “organized clutter is still clutter.” Where is that simplicity in my life that I yearn for and try so hard to attain. Aging and a MAC muddled mind are my excuses………….but God.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40) “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

For this I need preparation. Returning home from the final surgery as a true MAC survivor, my reentry needs to be purposeful, even as I convalesce. I need to de-clutter my mind before I run around reorganizing, yet again. Rearranging “stuff” is only a pseudo act ---a pretense of control. Mine is a mind game. Only He has the answer for me. The answer is to “Philippians 4:8 everything”, as Kay Arthur taught me. In other words, give Him control in my mind and allow my actions to follow thoughts received from Him.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (KJV)

“……..A mind stayed on Thee” (Isaiah 26:3) will take care of all the “clutter” in my life because there is only one option---the Lord Himself!