Well, again, I want to say welcome to you.
My name's Kevin, one of the pastors here,
and I'm so glad that we're able to worship together,
both for those of you who are tuning in at home
and for those of you who are here in person.
It is a joy and a real privilege
to be able to preach this morning to you.
And I wanna begin this morning
with a story from my teenage years.
Back in high school, I became a Christian
through a ministry called Young Life.
It's a great organization.
And their mission is to share the gospel with kids
who are unchurched, kids like myself,
who would never have stepped foot inside a church
except for maybe at Christmas or a funeral.
I didn't grow up going to youth group,
but Young Life groups were what I imagined
to be a bit like a youth group,
except they're customized for rowdy, secular kids.
We would play some sort of game during our gatherings,
and we would sing a bunch of songs,
kind of like church.
And then a cool college student would stand up
and give a talk about Jesus.
When we would sing songs,
we would normally sing contemporary, upbeat pop songs.
But every now and again,
every four to six weeks or so,
we would sing this really sad song.
And it's a song that has always haunted me,
and I wanna read some of the lyrics for us.
It's Cats in the Cradle by Henry Chapin, or Chapin.
And the song tells the story of a dad
who means really well,
but he's just too busy to actually spend time
with his son.
And then his whole life passes him by,
and he misses out on his son's life.
We're gonna look at how the song begins
and how the song ends.
So this is the first verse.
My child arrived just the other day.
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
And he was talking before I knew it,
and as he grew, he said,
I'm gonna be like you, Dad.
You know I'm gonna be like you.
And then the chorus.
The cats in the cradle and the silver spoon,
little boy blue and the man in the moon.
When are you coming home, Dad?
I don't know when.
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then.
The next two verses, same pattern.
The second verse is his son is 10 years old,
wants to play ball with his dad.
His dad's too busy.
The third verse, things switch a little bit.
The dad wants to spend some time with his son,
but his kid's in college
and just wants to drive his dad's car.
Too busy, don't have time.
This is the final verse of the song.
I've long since retired.
This is the dad speaking.
My son's moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, I'd like to see you if you don't mind.
He said, I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time.
You see, my new job's a hassle
and the kids have the flu.
Sure nice talking to you, Dad.
It's been sure nice talking to you.
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
he'd grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.
And the final chorus,
and the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon,
little boy blue and the man in the moon.
When are you coming home, son?
I don't know when.
But we'll get together then, Dad.
We're gonna have a good time then.
I have to say this song hits me
quite a bit differently 20 years
now that I have kids
from when I was a 16-year-old boy.
You know, this song is a great discipleship case study
in many ways on the power of imitation.
The son becomes just like his father.
But what I wanna highlight this morning
is what this song teaches us about time.
It's a morality tale about time.
And it's a warning.
Time is precious.
Time is our most valuable resource.
Our life is how we spend our time.
Don't waste it.
As we continue our series this morning
on discipleship and emotionally healthy spirituality,
we're going to be focusing on time.
And we're gonna look at three things.
We're gonna look at a framework
for how to think about time.
We're gonna look at the greatest threat
to our time today.
And then I wanna introduce or reintroduce us
to a few practices
to make the best use of our time.
So let's pray together.
Heavenly Father,
Father,
we come before you
even as we stood up
to hear your holy word.
Lord, I pray that you would help us
to understand your word,
to think about what that means
to stand under your word,
that we would submit to it,
that it would transform us,
that it would change us.
Lord, your word says in Psalm 91,
teach us to number our days
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
And that's our prayer this morning.
I pray these things in Christ's holy name.
Amen.
So first, with our passage,
we're gonna look at
the Apostle Paul's framework
for how to think about time.
In the first half of the letter
to the church in Ephesus,
Paul unpacks the glory of the gospel.
And it can be summarized
in Ephesians 2, verses 12 and 13.
Paul writes this.
Remember that you were at that time
before you were a Christian.
You were at that time
separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope
and without God in the world.
But now, in Christ Jesus,
you who were once far off
have been brought near
by the blood of Christ.
This is the heart of the gospel
that Jesus died to save sinners.
That's what Paul unpacks
in Ephesians chapter 1 through chapter 3.
And in the second half,
chapters 4 through 6,
Paul unpacks how the gospel
is to be worked
into every corner of our lives,
like kneading yeast into dough.
Throughout the Bible,
the language of walking
is a common metaphor
for describing our relationship,
our life with God.
And it's a really great metaphor
if you stop to think about it.
It shows us that faith
is active and dynamic.
It's not static.
It tells us that our faith
has a certain pace to it.
It's not a sprint.
It's an endurance race.
And it tells us
that faith is not just
something in the past,
but it's oriented towards
a goal in the future.
And Paul uses this walking metaphor
quite a lot
in the second half of Ephesians.
He says we are to walk in unity.
We're to walk in holiness.
We are to walk in light
and in love.
And in our passage,
we're to walk in wisdom.
Walking in wisdom
simply means
mastering the art
of living well.
Mastering the art
of living well.
The wise person
understands her context
and can discern
how she should respond,
how she should act
in any given situation.
And so in our passage
this morning,
verses 15 to 21,
Paul is answering
two questions.
When are we
and how should we then live?
When are we
and how should we then live?
So the first question,
when are we?
Well, Paul has
a surprising answer.
It's actually kind of
a scary one.
He says we are living
in evil days.
So what in the world
does Paul mean by that?
Seems very dramatic.
Well, Paul hints
at what he means
earlier in his letter
to the Ephesians
in chapter 2.
He says that we are living
in a time
where there are forces
at work.
He calls them the world
and the flesh
and the devil.
These forces that desire
nothing less
than our distraction
or our destruction.
And when you think about it,
in the end,
these two aren't
really that different.
I think it can be easy
to think that time
is neutral.
But that's not at all
how the Bible
describes it.
You see,
the Apostle Paul
conceives of time
in two ages.
There are two ages.
First, there's the present
evil age
in which we currently live.
That's the time
between Jesus'
first coming
and his second coming.
And the second age
is the age to come,
what we call heaven,
when Jesus returns
and sets the world
to rights.
We live in the present
evil age.
And so even though
we are living
2,000 or so years
after the Apostle Paul,
we inhabit the same time.
And so when Paul says
we're living in evil days,
what he's doing
is he's providing
our existential
or spiritual
time coordinates.
We live in a time
where there's powerful
forces working
against us,
trying to thwart
any progress
we might make
in our walk
with God.
And so during
these evil days,
the Christian life
is less of a walk
in the park
and more like a walk
through a minefield.
It's meant to be
sobering.
So,
what does this mean
for how we should
live our lives?
Because the days
are evil,
Paul writes,
look carefully
then how you walk.
Not as unwise,
but as wise,
the exhortation
is to make
the best use
of our time.
And so I want
to point out
two things here.
First is,
because the days
are evil,
Paul says we are
to remain vigilant.
We're supposed
to be very careful.
Look carefully
at how we walk.
We're not to
fall asleep spiritually.
Paul wants us
to wake up.
And he calls us
to live very intentionally
with great care.
He calls us
to watch our steps,
watch where we walk.
And I want to be
very clear here.
Paul is not saying
we're supposed
to live in fear.
Neither is he saying
we're supposed
to disengage
from the world.
He's saying
we're supposed
to take great care
in how we engage
the world,
take great care
in how we spend
our time.
We are to seize
every single opportunity
we have to love God
and to love our neighbors,
to take advantage
of every chance
we have
to be signposts
for the kingdom
of God
in a dark world.
We're to not
waste our time.
The second thing
I want to point out
is just what I find
most interesting
about this passage.
What I find
most interesting
is that Paul
doesn't give us
a list of rules
for how to not
waste our time.
He doesn't give us
a bunch of rules.
Instead,
he gives us
a kind of pattern
and then a really
great example.
And so I want to look
at that pattern
that he gives us
and then unpack
the example
a little bit.
So here's the pattern.
Our passage
is structured
around three
contrasting statements.
Don't be this way,
be this way instead.
Instead,
don't do this,
do this instead.
He says,
do not be unwise,
but be wise.
Do not be foolish,
but discern the will
of the Lord.
And then finally,
do not get drunk
with wine,
but be filled
with the Spirit.
Three contrasts.
What we're seeing
is a profound
moral logic here.
We shouldn't be surprised
that this is in the Bible.
You see,
God created us.
He knows how we tick.
He knows how we're formed
and what we need.
He knows that nature
and the human soul
abhor a vacuum.
Our Heavenly Father knows
that when his kids
are hungry,
it won't do to just say
don't have candy.
He needs to provide
a carrot for us instead.
And the moral logic
is really simple.
It's as simple as this.
Say no
to say yes.
It's simply
but elegantly pictured
in this slide
of a thumbs up
and a thumbs down.
This is what it means
to walk in wisdom.
This is what it looks like.
Saying no or yes
to the right things
at the right time.
Saying no or yes
to the right things
at the right time.
Very simple,
not very easy.
That's the pattern.
Now I want to look
at the example
that Paul gives us.
And it may seem odd
at first,
but if you stop
to think about it
and reflect upon it,
it's actually
a brilliant example.
Paul says in 518,
do not get drunk
with wine
for that is debauchery.
Instead,
be filled
with the Spirit.
So why does Paul
mention wine here?
Well, it's not
the use of alcohol
but the abuse
of alcohol
that's the problem.
And so Paul mentions
getting drunk,
not getting drunk
because on the surface,
getting drunk
is a really obvious
example of wasting time.
Now, the word
for debauchery
I think would probably
be better translated
as dissipation.
Don't get drunk
with wine
for that is dissipation.
Dissipation means
to squander
or to waste
the act of wasting
by misuse.
If you want
to waste your life,
get wasted all the time.
That's what Paul
is saying.
And if we dig
a little bit deeper
and we pay attention
to the contrast
with being filled
with the Spirit,
we'll see that
getting drunk
is not simply
a good example
of wasting time.
It shows us
that getting drunk
can lead to doing
or saying things
that you wouldn't do
if you were in your right mind,
that you wouldn't do normally.
So Paul contrasts wine
and the Holy Spirit
because these are two things
external to us
that can have
a profound influence
on our lives,
two things outside of us
that can shape us
and drive us
and dictate what we do.
So when Paul says
to be filled
by the Spirit,
he's conjuring
the image
of a boat,
of a sailboat
whose sails
are filled with wind
and driven forward.
What you're filled with
really matters.
What we allow
to fill our bodies
and our hearts
and our minds
has a profound influence.
Be filled with wine
and this leads
only to ruin,
but be filled
with the Spirit
and this leads
to all of the qualities
of healthy relationships
in Christian community
that we see
in Ephesians 5
verses 19
through 21.
So if we want
to make the best use
of our time,
Paul is saying,
we need to be very careful
about what we let
influence our heart
and our mind
and our body
because we are
so impressionable.
We need to be wise
about what impacts us.
Now I want you
to think about something.
If Paul were writing
this letter
not to the Ephesians
in the first century
but to our church
for instance
in Washington D.C.
in the 21st century,
what example
do you think
he might give
instead of
exhorting us
not to get drunk
with wine?
Take a minute
to think about
what he would say
instead of that example.
Now of course
I think
Paul's example
of alcohol,
of getting drunk
would still apply
to us
and to our context
but I'll tell you
what I think
he would say.
Instead of saying
don't get drunk
with wine,
I think Paul would say
don't get hypnotized
by your screens.
Don't get hypnotized
by your screens.
This leads us
to the second move
this morning.
The greatest threat
to making the best use
of our time.
I think
that the greatest threat
to our making
the best use
of the time
is our screens.
Our smartphones,
our tablets,
our laptops,
our TVs,
however you like
to stare at the screen.
The black mirror
that casts
the hypnotic blue glow
is the greatest threat
to our time.
I'm convinced of that.
Now,
it's not lost on me
that most of the people
listening to this sermon
are doing so
through a screen
and I want to be very clear,
screens in and of themselves
aren't evil.
It's not the use of screens,
it's the abuse of screens
just like with alcohol.
Nevertheless,
I think screens
are the greatest threat
to our time.
Now,
this morning
I'll resist
commenting on
some of the alarming statistics
between the impact
of screens
and our mental health
and the destruction
of our social fabric.
I know that correlation
is not the same
as causation.
The data
isn't yet conclusive on that.
We're still subjecting ourselves
and our children
to that experiment.
I think we'll
have to wait a few more years
to really see
what it's doing to us.
But what I can say
with confidence
is that screens
are the greatest threat
to making the best use
of our time
because of their power
for addiction
and their power
for manipulation.
Our screens
are causing us
to be addicted
and they're manipulating us.
I think the greatest
external influence,
the primary place
of our catechesis,
of our forming
our hearts
and our minds,
shaping our moral imaginations,
is the media
that we consume
on our screens.
And we really need
to walk in wisdom
with this technology
that is in our back pockets.
Now, I probably
don't need to convince you
about how addicting
our screens are.
But nevertheless,
here are some statistics
and these stats
are about
just our phone screens.
It doesn't have
anything to say
about our tablets
or our television use.
On average,
we pick up our phone
and have a session
on our phone
58 times a day.
So if you're awake
for 16 hours,
that means
we're on our phone
for a session
every 15 minutes,
four times an hour.
The average American
spends three hours
and 15 minutes
on their smartphone.
And the top users,
I suspect people
like the folks
in our church,
the average time
is up to four
and a half hours
a day.
That means we spend
close to a quarter
of our day
bent over,
necks hunched,
curved in on ourselves,
staring at our screens.
And studies show
that you don't even
have to be looking
at your phone
for it to distract you,
to have an impact
on your life.
Even if it's in
the same room with you,
it distracts us.
It distracts us
from our work
or from our prayer
or being in conversation
with people
that are actually
with us
in the same room.
You know,
I am embarrassed to say,
but I can't tell you
how many times
I've looked down
at my phone
to check something
and I don't have
notifications on my phone.
I'm smart enough
not to have notifications,
but I look at my phone
to check my email
or a calendar appointment
and then just seeing
an app on my phone
distracts me.
And I'm mindlessly
sucked into
the timeless news feed
or a funny cat video
vortex
or some other stupid thing
on the internet
only to be spit out
an hour later
realizing that I've
totally lost track
of my time.
I don't even know what,
I can't remember
what just happened
for the past hour.
I don't know
if you can relate to that.
Our screens are dicting
and they're wasting our time.
And they're not addictive
by accident.
A documentary called
The Social Dilemma
talks about this.
This is a great documentary.
I encourage you
to read it
or to watch it.
The documentary
interviews leaders
from big tech
and people who've
waken up to
how harmful
the tech industry can be,
how harmful
some of this technology
and media
and the apps
and platforms
and sites
that they helped create
can be.
They pull back
the curtain
for why this technology
and why our screens
are so highly addictive.
All these big companies,
Google,
Facebook,
Instagram,
Pinterest,
they all have
a business model
that depends
on gluing eyes
to screens.
Their bottom line
depends on this.
And so an unbelievable
amount of resources
is devoted to
hacking our attention
and exploiting
our vulnerabilities.
The saying goes,
if you're not paying
for a product
like Gmail,
for instance,
you are the product.
Our attention
is the product.
They're making money
off of our attention
and so they want
to get the most of it
that they can.
That's why it's addicting.
But the reality
actually is far worse.
The danger of screens
is far worse
than just addiction.
The real source
of money
is not just
our attention
but the manipulation
of our behavior,
the manipulation
of our activity
in the world.
This is how
Jaron Lanier
describes it.
He's a really
fascinating guy.
He's a Silicon Valley
scientist,
the author of a book
called Ten Arguments
for Deleting
Your Social Media
Accounts Right Now.
He says this.
This is how
they monetize
these companies.
It's the gradual,
slight,
imperceptible change
in our behavior
and perception
that is the product.
That's what they're
making money off of.
That's the only thing
for them to make money from.
This is terrifying.
Changing what you do,
how you think,
and who you are.
That's the real danger
of screens.
They're changing
what we do,
what we think,
and who we are.
We're being manipulated
by them.
We're willingly
being manipulated
by them.
We hold our screens
but our screens
really have a grip
on us.
Now here's a real world
example of what
this manipulation
can look like.
They talk about this
in the documentary.
A couple years ago
Facebook did an experiment
on its users
and they're constantly
running experiments
on us,
believe it or not.
They were testing
to see if subliminal
cues on Facebook pages
could impact
voter turnout.
And they twisted
some dials
and they realized
that they could
actually change
real world events.
The subliminal cues
worked.
Got more people
to vote in
midterm elections.
And of course
voting is good
but this kind of
power is terrifying.
They could
maybe get us
to not vote
or vote
for a particular
candidate
or another candidate.
They can manipulate
our behavior
and our emotions
and real world events
without us
ever knowing
that they're influencing
us.
It's pretty scary
stuff.
Our phone screens,
I like to think
of them,
is sort of like
a pocket-sized
black hole
relentlessly sucking
in all of our time
into itself
and when it spits
us back out
it's manipulated
into what we think
and what we feel
and what we do.
And as disciples
of Jesus Christ
we need to pay
attention to this
and we need to think
about how we're
using this technology.
Now to their good credit
some people
in the tech industry
are trying to resist
the corrosive effect
of screens.
They've wakened up
to this
and they're trying
to sort of solve
some of the problems
that they've created.
And this has given
rise to a movement
called the Time
Well Spent Movement.
I don't know about you
but I'm a little bit
suspicious of turning
to big tech
to solve some of the
problems that they've
created.
Especially when
as Christians
we have tremendous
resources from
the Christian tradition
to do this.
And so
lastly I want to look
at and introduce
perhaps reintroduce
us to some
practices
for us to make
the best use
of our time.
I like to think
of these
as ancient wisdom
for some of our
modern problems.
The three practices
are fasting,
the daily office,
and the Sabbath.
And this is
a lot of this
is from chapter 6
of Emotionally Healthy
Spirituality
which we're tracking
through in our
core groups.
So we'll spend
more time
in our core groups
talking about
some of these details.
What I'm going to
talk about now
is not really
trying to be
comprehensive.
It's more of
a quick overview
of how we can
incorporate these
practices
into our lives
with a mind
towards resisting
the power of
screens in our lives.
So first
the practice
of fasting.
The same moral logic
applies to fasting
as we've been
talking about.
It's the practice
of saying no
so that we can
say yes
to other things.
This week
as a community
we're inviting you
to fast
from social media
to give some
of this
a try.
And realistically
fasting for a week
from social media
is not going
to rewire
our brain
or break
bad habits.
We spend so much
time on our screens
we can't break
the bad habit
in just a week.
I'd like to think
of it more
as like a diagnostic
tool this week
with fasting
from social media.
It will probably
just expose
our dependence
to our screens.
But that's
a good thing.
It's a good first step.
Admitting that you
have a problem
is the first step
towards recovery.
The first step
towards walking
and wisdom.
So fast.
Fast from social media.
Stop using social media.
Limit your intake
of other media
as well.
Try to stay off screens
as much as possible
outside of work
or school.
And as you go
through this experience
ask yourself
pay attention
journal
what is it like
to unplug?
What is it like
to get off
of your screen?
How is the Lord
inviting you?
Ask yourself this
how is the Lord
inviting you
to repent
and believe
this week?
Remember repentance
is not just
is not really
feeling bad
about bad habits
or what you've done
or about yourself.
Repenting is
turning around.
It's turning
from deadly habits
towards more
life-giving ones
from deadly activities
to more life-giving
activities.
So that's the first
practice fasting.
The next two
the daily office
and the Sabbath
are more directly
related to time.
And I like to think
of these two practices
as contemplative life hacks
contemplative time hacks.
They're daily
and weekly practices
that help us
to think
and act
more carefully
with our time.
They help us
to structure our time
so that we might
be able to do so.
And they provide
the space
that's required
so that we might
be filled
by the Holy Spirit
to hear the voice
of the Lord
that God loves us
and what he wants
us to do
that we might discern
the will of the Lord.
So the second practice
is the daily office.
This is the daily rhythm.
The daily office
is simply
set times of prayer
set times
of silence
scripture reading
that frame our day.
Set times
set apart
so that we can
pay attention
to God.
It's usually
two or three times
throughout our day.
It can be
morning and evening
or morning,
noon,
and evening.
And
it's a
great practice
for structuring
our day
to orient us
towards our day.
For many of us,
I suspect,
we have a really
bad habit
of the first thing
that we look at
in the morning
and the last thing
that we look at
at night
is a screen.
Checking our email,
looking at the news,
whatever it may be.
And that's not a good habit.
That's a very bad habit.
Perhaps the best
and most strategic thing
you can do
every single day
to resist the power
and the manipulation
of screens
is the daily office.
So in the morning,
commit to not looking
at your screen
before you look
at the scriptures.
And in the evening,
plug your phone in
an hour before you go to bed,
put it to sleep,
put it to rest,
put it in another room,
and don't look at it again.
Instead of doom scrolling
right before you go to sleep,
practice the daily examine,
the practice
that Pastor Tommy
led us through,
taught us about
last Sunday.
When we practice
the daily office,
we resist allowing
the notifications
on our screen
or our email
or our appointments
in our calendar
to structure our day.
We allow God's word
and God's voice
to structure our day.
And the final practice,
we have fasting,
the daily office,
and then the Sabbath.
And this is our weekly rhythm.
My favorite description
of the Sabbath
is from a theologian
named Marva Dawn.
She describes the Sabbath
as a royal waste of time.
I love that.
It's a day,
24-hour period,
set apart
where we take a break
from the grind
of production
and consumption.
It's a day set apart
devoted to wasting time
with the king
of the universe.
And there's a movement
to the Sabbath.
The movement
is stopping
and contemplation
and feasting.
I want to talk
a little bit
about each one of these.
So,
Sabbath,
the word Shabbat
means to cease
or to stop.
So,
the first movement
for the Sabbath
is stopping.
As that relates
to our screens,
that just means
turning off your phone.
Spend a day
where you're not
looking at your screen.
Put it away
for the whole day.
And it's really helpful
for Sabbath
to mark the time,
both the beginning
and the end,
to set it apart.
So,
what I like to do
is to say a prayer
to start the Sabbath.
So,
I'm entering into this day
that's set apart
and as it's ending,
I like to say a prayer
to wrap things up.
Committing things
to the Lord
and then thanking the Lord
for how he's met me
in this period of time.
So,
stop using the screen.
Give it a rest.
Sabbath is a day
to say no.
It's the same movement.
We're saying no
in order to say yes.
The Sabbath is a day
to say no
but it's also a day
of saying yes.
The Sabbath is not a vacuum.
It's not a day
of just being sad
and alone
in a dark room.
And this is where
contemplation comes in.
This is where we fill
ourselves up.
We get off our screens
and we don't just
look at nothing.
We get off our screens
in order to get
into God's world,
into creation
and to get more deeply
into God's word.
We contemplate.
We look.
We listen.
We pay attention to God
and we allow
the tangled mess
of our lives
to be untangled.
We allow God
to reorient
our priorities
and our values.
And the final movement
of Sabbath keeping
is feasting.
We savor.
We enjoy.
We celebrate.
We embrace the things
that are most life-giving
and restore our humanity.
So instead of binging
a show on Netflix,
maybe read a book
for pleasure.
Maybe read some poetry.
Instead of liking posts
on social media
from perfect strangers,
invest,
spend some time
in your most important
relationships.
That might require
getting creative
in these times.
go for a walk outside
with a friend
or write a letter
or do something
to serve or bless somebody
in the community.
Now there's much more
to say about all
these practices.
We're just scratching
the surface
and we just looked
at them through the angle
of resisting
the power of screens.
Our hope this week
is that you'll spend
some more time
working these things
out more fully
in the context
of your core groups
or your spiritual friendships.
This morning,
I want to close
with a poem.
A poem, poetry,
is one of my favorite
things to do
on the Sabbath.
It's one of my
spiritual practices,
actually.
Because I found poetry
to be one of the greatest
antidotes to the flurry
of Twitter hot takes
and the relentless pace
of the 24-7 news cycle.
Reading good poetry,
the practice of reading
good poetry,
is a slow and a quiet
and a radical challenge
to the harmful habits
reinforced by our screens.
The poem I'm going to read
is one of my favorite poems
and it ties together
so many of the themes
that we've been exploring
together this morning.
It's a poem that invites us
to think about
how we spend our time
and therefore
how we spend our lives.
The poem is
The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver.
I'll end with this.
Who made the world?
Who made the swan
and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean.
The one who has flung herself
out of the grass.
The one who is eating sugar
out of my hand.
Who is moving her jaws
back and forth
instead of up and down.
Who is gazing around
with her enormous
and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts
her pale forearms
and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open
and floats away.
I don't know exactly
what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention.
How to fall down into the grass.
How to kneel down in the grass.
How to be idle and blessed.
How to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me,
what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last
and too soon?
Tell me,
what is it you plan to do
with your one wild
and precious life?
Let's pray.
Father,
we thank you for speaking to us.
Lord,
we pray that you would help us
to not only be hearers
of your word,
but to be doers.
Lord,
would you help us
to reorient our lives,
restructure our lives,
help us to make the best use
of the time.
Lord,
again we pray,
teach us to number our days
that we may gain
a heart of wisdom.
We pray all these things,
Lord,
for our good,
for the good of your world
and for your glory.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.