Home & Blog | Lynne Baab

Draw near: Looking back, looking forward, in prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 27 2022

I used a Jewish Sabbath prayer in my book, Sabbath Keeping: “Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles.” The prayer speaks to me about a common experience of humans. We simply don’t see the miracles around us.

As the prayer continues, the significance of seeing is stressed:

“Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing; let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim...

Read full article »

Draw near: Praying without words

Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 20 2022

Sometimes when we want to pray, the words just won’t come. Wordless prayer can feel inadequate and awkward. Sometimes being with Jesus, without using words, is exactly the right thing to do. Maybe we want to sit quietly with Jesus, or perhaps walk with him, holding his hand, enjoying his nearness. Perhaps we want to listen to God.

I started this blog series called “Draw Near” exactly six months ago. My favorite way to describe prayer is drawing near to God. Or to Jesus. Or to the Holy Spirit. The idea of drawing near comes from Hebrews 4:15-16:

“For we do not have...

Read full article »

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...

Read full article »

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...

Read full article »

<< Newer | Older >>