“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 NIV
Our first summer worship series will have us reflecting upon the book, “Beyond Words: 15 Ways of Doing Prayer” by Kristen Johnson Ingram. It is not necessary to purchase the book to follow our worship series, but it is a wonderful read, pointing the reader to intentional ways of moving throughout one’s day as a way of prayer. Ingram writes this, “Prayer is – and should be – a mystery, the greatest mystery of all because in it you try to engage the God who is unknowable in ordinary conversation. In prayer you call up the eternal and ask it to be revealed to the finite. Perhaps you whisper the Our Father as you fall asleep, and you say grace over your food, and holler “Fix this!” at God when you watch the day’s depressing news. But sometimes you can’t find words, or you’re so mad at God you can’t form a sentence. Or maybe you feel verbally inadequate to express your love or anxiety or whatever. Or maybe, it’s just that the nonrational wins that day. You’re not just a mouth attached to a brain: if God made all of you, then all of needs to learn how to communicate with God, and doing prayer responds to that need.” Join us for this worship series that beckons us into an adventure of prayer from music and gardening to cooking and eating. Let us learn to savor our prayer practice as we express the diversity and varieties of daily living.