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Draw near: Praying for joy

Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 13 2022

“These days I find myself curious about what it means to approach joy as a practice, and to receive it as a grace that God offers. . . . I have been pondering how practicing joy involves asking for it, preparing a place for it, praying to be open to it so that we can recognize it when it appears.” —Jan Richardson, poet, artist, and Methodist minister [1]

Jan Richardson’s words about joy jumped out at me because I don’t do what she suggests. I don’t ask God for joy, prepare a place for it, or ask God that I would be open...

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Draw near: Praying in Advent

Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 6 2022

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had an interesting take on how to engage in the Advent season. His words can guide our prayers during this season leading up to Christmas. In a sermon delivered on Dec. 2, 1928, when he was only 22 years old, Bonhoeffer said:

“The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come” (from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons).

December is such a complicated month for those of us who live in countries with a strong Christian heritage that has been overlaid...

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Draw near: Desire

Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 29 2022

“In the modern period and in Europe and America, we’ve tended to think of religions in terms of belief. That means cognitive assent, cognitive understanding. . . . But most human beings don’t live in that kind of modern, somewhat sterile world. We’re always oriented to our desires. Whether they’re simple desires like ‘I’m thirsty or hungry,’ or whether they’re a desire to see a beloved child or lover, our whole life is about desire. A lot of hymns capture this more affective, aesthetic, openhearted way of experiencing our life and our faith. . . . [Desire] is the openness of...

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Draw Near: Praying for trust and prayer as trust

Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 22 2022

If you’ve ever visited Trafalgar Square in London and looked toward the National Gallery, you might have noticed a church off to the right. That is St-Martin-in-the-Fields, where Rev. Samuel Wells is the vicar. He was previously the Dean at Duke University Chapel, and he is one of my favorite columnists in The Christian Century. I love it when he writes about the challenges of serving a church in central London, often full of tourists. I also enjoy his reflections on what our Christian faith looks like in practice.

In a recent column, Rev. Wells argues that there are two kinds of...

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