Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

Draw near: Praising God with Desmond Tutu

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 20 2022

Draw near: Praising God with Desmond Tutu

All you big things, bless the Lord. Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria, The Rift Valley and the Serengeti Plain, Fat baobabs and shady mango trees, All eucalyptus and tamarind trees, bless the Lord. Praise and extol Him for ever and ever.

All you tiny things, bless the Lord. Busy black Ants and hopping fleas, Wriggling tadpoles and mosquito larvae, Flying locusts and water drops, Pollen dust and tsetse flies, Millet seeds and dried dagga, Bless the Lord. Praise and extol him forever.

Former archbishop and anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu includes this prayer in his book An African Prayer Book. I love the specificity of the things in the prayer, and it motivates me...

Read full article »

Draw near: Yearning, beseeching and beholding with Desmond Tutu

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 13 2022

Draw near: Yearning, beseeching and beholding with Desmond Tutu

“Saint Julian of Norwich says prayer ‘is yearning, beseeching and beholding.’ We are made for God, we yearn to be filled with the fullness of God, and so we come asking the one who is always eager to give. We place ourselves in his hands as suppliants, in the attitude of those who know they have nothing that they have not received, before the One who is ever the gracious one, ready to give beyond our asking and our deserving. We are like parched land thirsty for the gift of rain – yearning, beseeching, waiting and asking and assured that we...

Read full article »

Draw near: Worshipping God with Desmond Tutu

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 6 2022

Draw near: Worshipping God with Desmond Tutu

In this short series of four blog posts (within a larger series on prayer), I am honoring Desmond Tutu – South African archbishop, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace prize laureate, who died in December at the age of 90. In the mid-1990s he compiled a collection of prayers from all over Africa called An African Prayer Book. Here’s his introduction to the section of the book on adoration.

“All of us are by nature worshipful. We may worship God to whom we ascribe his due, his worth. This is true worship. Or, we may give a false worship to money, to status,...

Read full article »

Drawing near with Desmond Tutu: God’s love is the foundation for prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 30 2022

Drawing near with Desmond Tutu: God’s love is the foundation for prayer

You have probably heard of South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, and you may know he died last December. In the 1980s he was the Anglican bishop of Johannesburg and then served as the archbishop of Capetown for a decade, in both cases being the first Black African to hold the position. He was also an antiapartheid and human rights activist and an eloquent speaker and writer. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent opposition to apartheid.

I am most familiar with Archbishop Tutu from his collection of prayers from all over Africa, An African Prayer Book. I’ve been...

Read full article »
<< Newer | Older >>

Featured books

Featured articles

NEW: Nurturing a contemplative stance for navigating challenging times

Lynne Baab • Friday August 11 2023

By Lynne M. Baab

NEW: Spiritual Practices for People in Ministry

Lynne Baab • Sunday June 26 2022

Making Space for a Continuing Conversation with the Living God

NEW: Yes, Jesus Told Us to Pray in Secret. But He Also Prayed with His Friends.

Lynne Baab • Saturday October 9 2021

By Lynne M. Baab. Originally published in Christianity Today, July 8, 2021