I love personalizing Psalm 23, and last week led this exercise at Launde Abbey – with these sheep in the background! Here’s the rendition I penned, which you might resonate with?
The Lord is my rest giver, I embrace shalom. He makes me release my projects, he leads me to the restoring waters, he refreshes my soul and my body. He helps me clear my diary for my own good. Even though I trudge through the valley of overcommitment, I will not fret, for you are with me; your tools to say no, they help me. You prepare a feast before me with those whom I’ve disappointed. You shower me with your unfailing love; my heart overflows. Surely your gentle invitations will accompany me all the days of my life, and I’ll live with you forever.
How might you apply this beloved Psalm in your life today?
I welcome you to join me and my husband, Nicholas Pye, celebrating the joy of Easter through a reading from John’s gospel. It details what happened that first Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead. Filmed on location at the Garden Tomb, Jerusalem, January 2023.
You might also enjoy reading about the life-changing story of Charles Simeon one Easter morning in today’s Our Daily Bread.
As we move through the events of Holy Week, I invite you to enter into the “Gethsemane moment” in John’s gospel, from John 12. Some Greeks – simply meaning those who were not Jewish – appeared before several of the disciples and asked if they could see Jesus. This to Jesus signified that his hour had come, and he set his face to the cross.
Let me know if you use this prayer exercise, and if you’re willing, how God met you. May entering the story of Jesus and his hour enrich your faith in him and your love for others.
“Can you really not throw this away?” I say to my husband with irritation, holding up a crumpled piece of paper that I know, before I pick it up, is a list of groceries that he bought at the store.
He sighs and says he’ll try. Later I apologize for my grumpiness when it comes to those many shopping lists strewn around our home. I have tried to train myself to stop, apologize, and ask for forgiveness when I get annoyed or lose my temper with family members, often over the little things of life. Sometimes it’s easier to adhere to the “stopping” part of that cycle than at other times, even though after the fact I wish I could reel in my tongue sooner.
Can you recall a time you didn’t honor Christ in the day-to-day of life? Unfortunately, I could share several other stories! But a wonderful and freeing part of serving our forgiving God is how He runs toward us with grace and love. Though we fail, in the little moments of the day or the big ones, He offers us a fresh start, a clean slate. We’re His beloved—He doesn’t label us by our wrongdoings.
The Beloved Daughter
God running toward us, arms outstretched with love, is pictured in the well-known parable Jesus tells of the Prodigal Son (see Luke 15:11–31). Imagine a slice of this familiar story—with a twist—and see how your heart reacts:
[Read the rest over at the God Hears Her website and join in with this wonderful community]
For the last decade I’ve enjoyed choosing a word for the year instead of making New Year’s resolutions – amazing to think it’s been that many years. I’ve blogged about this topic a bit over the years if you’d like to read more, including how to discern your word with God.
I haven’t yet settled on my word for 2024. I think it will have a “re” at the beginning – some of the words I’m playing with are renew, restore, rejuvenate, recover, rejoice. My word last year was “renew” – I’m wondering about renewing renew as my word, as a friend commented! Shifting the narrative from having failed at the word in 2023 to renewing its place in my life. Hmm.
I’d love to hear your word, if you have one and feel able to share.
Jesus loved his friends, and taught them how to pray. This prayer may be so familiar to us that we skim over it, but we can slow down and ponder each phrase for encouragement, inspiration, and delight. Join me in the amazing ruins of Waverley Abbey, the first monastery in Britain, as I lead us through this prayer.
Let me know if you use this prayer exercise, and if you’re willing, how God met you. May praying the words Jesus prayed enrich your faith in him and love for others.
The prayer shawl got its debut at Penhurst Retreat Centre.
As the very grateful recipient of a prayer shawl from my lovely friend Liz Shields, who is part of the prayer shawl ministry at Liverpool Cathedral, I asked Liz to share about the weaving process. Yarn and warp and weft (and no I don’t really understand those terms), with the whole of the making soaked in prayer. I found her process fascinating!
Do I think that a prayer shawl has a magical quality? No. But God delights in the “stuff” of creation – bread and wine, trees and water, milk and honey. In surprising and amazing ways he answers our prayers. The shawl can be a tangible reminder of his love and care.
Here’s Liz:
Liz with the finished creation!
I have been making prayer shawls for about eight years now. It began after I read an article in a magazine about the spirituality of knitting. The prayer shawl ministry was mentioned and it gave their website. When I read more about it, I thought it was something I would love to be involved in. The website gave information about churches and other organizations that were involved with this ministry – most of these were in America, but there were some in the UK. Sadly, none were local to me. So, I decided to make a shawl anyway and give it to someone I knew. My gift was so well received, that I was encouraged to carry on.
To begin with, my shawls were either knitted or crocheted. When I learnt to weave and my skills gradually improved, I started to weave shawls as well. There is something very mediative about weaving and praying!
At the beginning of 2020, I learnt that Liverpool Cathedral were about to start this ministry, so I registered to join their team. It has been a wonderful blessing to me and a great privilege to be involved with this ministry at the Cathedral and to use my creative gifts in this way, holding people before God in prayer as I weave.
Making Amy’s Shawl
After I received a message from Amy on a social media channel about the shawls and scarves that I weave, I offered to weave a prayer shawl for her. As I am involved with the Prayer Shawl Ministry at Liverpool Cathedral, I was given permission to have it blessed at one of the Cathedral services.
I checked with Amy what colours she would like in her shawl and what type of fibre she would prefer.
Then I collected together some possible yarns and wove some samples. Sampling allows me to see how the colours work together, and also to decide which pattern to use.
From those samples I chose Scheepjes Whirlette in the colourway Bubble for the warp and Scheepjes Whirl in colourway BrambleBerry for the weft.
Now I am almost ready to begin but before I do, I turn to prayer and commit the project and Amy and myself to the Lord and ask His blessing on what I will make. Quite often a passage of Scripture will come to me, and I use that to write a prayer and then I use that prayer throughout my weaving. I also use prayers from a booklet that has been produced by Liverpool Cathedral for our Prayer Shawl Ministry team.
The first task in weaving is to calculate the number of threads I will need and then to wind a warp on my warping board.
For this project, I needed 198 threads. I usually count as I go along in multiples of 20. I always double check to make sure I have the correct number and then I place a marker around each group of 20.
Once the warp is wound, and secured at various points, it’s ready to be taken off the warping board and chained.
Now it’s time to ‘dress’ the loom which involves…
…securing the warp on the back beam of the loom and spreading it out evenly;
…threading the heddles. The heddles allow each thread to be raised in a particular pattern. If these are threaded wrongly, the pattern won’t work.
..threading the reed – which keeps the threads in position and maintains the correct width.
The last part of ‘dressing’ the loom is to secure the warp on the front beam, making sure the tension is even across the width of the warp.
The final preparation task is to wind the shuttles with the weft yarn and then the weaving can begin!
Once I have woven a few inches, I secure the warp threads by hemstitching in groups of two. This ensures that the weaving won’t unravel when it’s taken off the loom.
The first few rows of weaving are always exciting. As you begin to see the pattern emerging, you realize that all the hard work of warping has been worth it, and you know that you can settle down and enjoy the meditative rhythm of weaving and praying.
When the desired length is reached, another row of hemstitching is done and then the warp threads are cut and I can wind the shawl off the front beam of the loom.
I finish off the shawl by securing any ends on the back of the shawl, and then twist the fringe.
The shawl is now ready to be taken to the Cathedral, to be labelled, gift-wrapped and then blessed.
Amy’s shawl was blessed on Ascension Day at the High Altar of Liverpool Cathedral by one of the Cathedral Canons.
You might find you are keen for a shawl too. You can find out more about the Prayer Shawl Ministry through this website. Also, Liz recommends that people approach their local church if they’re interested in receiving a shawl or having one blessed. Members of the clergy should be pleased to bless a shawl that someone had made, even if this specific ministry is not part of their church life.
I continue to love personalizing Psalm 23, and this week as I’m at Penhurst Retreat Centre in the lovely English countryside, I’m enjoying seeing the sheep and lambs as I ponder the Lord as my Shepherd. I share in the video below, which I recorded while being in the Shepherd’s Hut at Penhurst, about how to adapt Psalm 23 to us today.
On social media I welcomed hearing your renditions, and I’m delighted to share Caroline Lessiter’s lovely one: “The Lord is my Friend,” with permission.
The Lord is my friend, therefore I lack no support.
He makes me rest when I am tired;
He leads me to thin places
where I can take stock and be refreshed.
He guides me when I am feeling lost,
for His glory.
Even though I may be deeply troubled
I fear nothing,
because You are at my side always.
Your ever presence
comforts me.
You hold out Your hands of love
and welcome me during my times of struggle.
You wrap me in Your loving embrace
and I am filled with Your strength.
Surely Your grace and mercy will be with me
for the rest of my life
and I will live in my Father’s house
forever.
Looking for resources for Lent? Last year we released an interactive small-group resource called The Prayers of Jesus, published by Waverley Abbey Resources, in which we explore 6 of the 7 prayers of Jesus in the gospels. It gives you the tools for leading the session, such as prayers, activities, background on the particular prayer of Jesus, discussion questions, and a prayer activity for the group.
And this year we’ve put together an online resource for you! Here’s an introductory video.
You can’t tell from the photo above, but I was shivering as we taped a lot of the course at the 1400 year old ruins of Waverley Abbey. It’s a gorgeous thin space, and made an amazing setting. But chilly and drizzly!
The six sessions include:
Session introduction
Exploration of the prayer with Micha Jazz (these discussion are AMAZING and a huge added bonus!)
Prayer exercise
Closing comments
You can use this course with your small group or on your own. You can register your interest here with Waverley Abbey; it should be available next week. I pray it will help you meet with Jesus!
If you’d like to get copies of the small-group guide from me, here’s my discount plan:
1-6 copies, 16% discount, £5 each plus postage 7-9 copies, 21% discount £4.75 each plus postage 10 or more, 25% discount, £4.50 each plus postage
If you’re not in the UK, I’m happy to send it to you, but postage might be prohibitive.
May praying the words Jesus prayed enrich your faith in him and love for others.
Yesterday my daughter and I enjoyed an everything-goes-right travel day. I’m taking some time to write about this because I see it as an answer to prayer. Now when we have one of those atrocious everything-goes-wrong travel days, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us. Rather I’m taking yesterday as a gift of love – an extra grace.
I worked to keep calm and in the right frame of mind throughout the day, with just two blips. One was a moment of reckoning on the way to Heathrow, when we were two-thirds of the way there, our flight delayed by an hour meaning that we’d not make our connection in Atlanta, meaning an extra six hours would be added to our journey. Meaning I’d be driving to our friends in Virginia at 11:30pm (which would have been 4.30am British time).
The longest and hardest wait was at the beginning, at the airport, not knowing if we’d find a solution or if the long, long day lay ahead. Is that true in life? We don’t know what next steps to take or what the final outcome will be. The miasma of uncertainty can throw us at this point, when having faith while waiting can feel excruciating.
I went to the wrong queue, waiting at the Virgin Atlantic service counter instead of going to Delta. That cost us some time. More time at Delta as the queues moved at a seeming glacial pace. So much to check these days with covid certificates, travel attestation forms, and so on. At the Delta line when my turn came, we had a switch-over of employees. The woman who arrived seemed flustered from the start as she searched and searched through her purse/handbag, looking for a pencil as it turned out. Then she found she couldn’t log on. She’d been furloughed for over a month and the systems had changed. After more than twenty minutes I started to waver in my patience when I saw people at the next line over moving through the system, and finally asked if I could change queues.
That was a good move. The person there was clearly very competent, and when I asked if anything could be done in terms of finding a better flight – without nearly 5 hours in Atlanta – she said she’d work on it. She got a supervisor to come over, Mohammed, and as she moved her screen and keyboard for him to reach over the counter to see what he could do, I joked, “Ah, do you have the magic hands!” (Meaning the secret codes released to those at a certain level.) He smiled and kept on typing.
After a few stops and starts, he smiled and said, “Yes, this will work.” He routed us through New York’s JFK airport getting us to our destination two hours before our original time!
Flight to JFK went well. I started to wonder if we would make the connection when getting through immigration took a long time. Then security took a long time, and I left my iPad in a bag, which meant that it had to be rescanned. And our gate was B51 – almost the most far away in that terminal from security. We were cutting it very tight and because my daughter got scraped up in a mountain biking accident at camp (she’s fine but it’s sore), she couldn’t walk hugely fast. So when we got to the gate, although we were 10 minutes before the flight and it still said, “Boarding,” the gate agent was gone and it appeared we were too late. Sigh.
After resigning ourselves to time in the airport – at least I could get some food for my daughter who hadn’t eaten either of the meal offerings on the plane – the gate agent came out and said that we could board because there was a malfunction on the plane. Now no one likes to hear of a malfunction but it was simply the deliberator’s batteries weren’t working. So we boarded, waited just a half hour, and landed – still ahead of time.
I write this sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs in the photo above, looking at the lovely view, hearing the birds, cicadas, satisfied from a breakfast of croissant and eggs from chickens raised here at Corhaven. Giving thanks for these answered prayers for this day of travel, received with gratitude. Reminding myself to think back to the day-where-everything-went-right the next time I’m traveling.
How to you exercise faith when the outcome isn’t clear?
