First United Methodist Church Rev. Dennis Ticen 2637 McCool Road, Portage, IN 46368 (219) 762-3846
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The Witness Issue I
January 2015
“The Jesus Prayer” Prayer is not something that has ever come easily or naturally to me. I envy those for whom it does, but for me prayer is always a struggle. My mind wanders and focuses elsewhere, and I find myself often having to force myself to come back to the place of prayer. I think I am not alone in this struggle. So when I hear Paul telling us to “pray without ceasing,” I begin to despair. How can I ever do that? I struggle to pray for a few minutes without losing focus. What hope do I have for praying constantly? Recently, as part of a reading group I belong to, I encountered a book I had never heard of, “The Way of a Pilgrim” written by an anonymous Russian author. The book details his journeys all across Russia and, more importantly, his pursuit of praying without ceasing. One spiritual director along the way teaches him a simple prayer, and encourages him to pray it aloud as he travels. The prayer, often called “The Jesus Prayer,” goes like this: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Simple, short, to the point. In the story, the pilgrim prays it so much that it becomes part of his subconscious and he finds his spirit praying the same thing even when he’s not thinking about it. Of course, that story takes place in a different time than we live our lives. We live in an era filled with noise: cell phones, music, television, internet and so on. How can we ever overcome all the distractions in order to move toward praying unceasingly? It’s easy to blame “the age we live in,” but the challenges were no less in earlier days. Minds wandered then, too. Hearts became unfocused then, too. As I read this book, I became resolved not to simply copy what the pilgrim did, but to find a way to constantly pray in my own context. This coming year, one way I want to go about that is to use a prayer like “The Jesus Prayer” (and maybe that exact one), a prayer that expresses my heart’s desire in a focused fashion, and pray it whenever my mind begins to wander or whenever I can remember it. For one thing, that begins to connect my spirit more regularly to my heavenly Father. For another—is there any harm at all in praying for mercy? We are in constant need, aren’t we? I know I am! I invite you to join me in “stepping up” our prayer lives this year. Maybe you want to join one of our prayer teams. Maybe you want to spend time praying before each worship service, or training yourself to pray when you hear sirens going somewhere, or at stoplights. Some set their cell phones to beep a certain tone at a certain time to remind them to pray. Whatever will work for you, let’s renew our prayer lives in 2015, because I believe nothing else happens without prayer happening first. I’ll see you at the prayer place on Sunday! Pastor Dennis
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Jordan Kwiatkowski Laura Brubaker Jamieson Colby Randy Wilkening Nora Brown Marilyn Martus Michael Woods Dan McCoy Avaya Massow
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Jeff Wrigley Mike Novak Nicole Fagan Victoria Pollacheck Bridget Nadolski Paisley Miller Bert Fowler Kathy Matthew
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Sarah Nadolski Madison Wrigley Noah Wrigley Elaine Lucas Clara Harbart Dawn Harbart Jessica Poole Randy Wilkening Jr.