St. Francis’s Prayer

All-highest, glorious God,
Cast your light into the darkness of my heart.

Give me true faith,
Firm hope,
Perfect charity,
And profound humility
With wisdom and perception.

O Lord,
So that I may do what is truly your holy will. Amen.

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Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury;
Pardon.
Where there is error;
Truth.
Where there is doubt;
Faith.
Where there is despair;
Hope.
Where there is darkness;
Light.
Where there is sadness;
Joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not seek so much
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Ethiopian Prayer

God, you have prepared in peace the path I must follow today.
Help me to walk straight onto that path.

If I speak, remove lies from my lips.
If I’m hungry, take away from me all complaint.
If I have plenty, destroy pride in me.

May I go through the day calling on you, you, o Lord,
Who know no other Lord.

Amen.

Green Tea

Somebody just forwarded me an article on a study conducted by Yale School of Medicine. Apparently they found a bunch of health benefits associated with drinking green tea on a regular basis. Pretty cool.

It made me think about a couple things:

1. One of the things I really miss about Japan is the variety of drinks available in vending machines and convenient stores. Every vending machine (and there are a whole a lot of them) has at least two kinds of tea. NOT sweetened. They are usually some sort of green tea, barley tea, oolong tea, or a blend of all of the above+. There is nothing more refreshing than gulping down chilled green tea in a mercilessly hot, sweaty, humid summer afternoon in Japan. If I wanted to get something out of vending machine in the US that is not pop, my only choice is water. Water is good, I know. But I miss my crazy 16-blend tea (some of it even naturally de-caf).

2. Starbucks has green tea frapchino during summer. And they put freaking melon syrup in it. GROSSNES. If you want to get a real green tea frapchino, try this; Ask them to leave melon syrup out, and double the dose of green tea powder. It’s much less sweet and more flavorful that way. This is an ancient wisdom passed along in the Japanese community in the U. S. since last summer. Since I’m not a coffee drinker, I hardly ever go to Starbucks. But alas, they got me hooked on this one.

How Can You Tell?

I’ve been thinking about the ways we should decipher what is and is not “God’s will” for us. It has been on my mind a lot especially for the last couple weeks. I was serving as a program coordinator for the CC06, and we ended up making pretty major changes to the program at the last minute. I “felt” the “calling” to make these changes, and it seemed like doors were being opened one by one for us to go forward with the new plan. But I kept wondering if it was really God’s will or just something I wanted to do for my personal fulfillment.

Yes, of course there is Philippians 2:13 (For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure). But there are definitely times God’s will and my own don’t align… I can also sugar coat my selfish motives with seemingly godly reasons to convince others and myself. Argh.

Then I heard this on radio on the way to CC as I prayed for discernment.

When searching for God’s will:
1. Be willing. Willing to be open to an outcome that is not what you desire. Willing to be uncomfortable or be challenged. Willing to wait.
2. Stay willing. God’s will may be revealed over an extended period of time. So stay open and be patient (oh, the P word!).
3. Consult the Word.
4. Look at the circumstance.
5. Think. Use common sense.
6. Act

I don’t know what program it was or which radio stations the program was on. I don’t even remember who this idea came from but it was a famous missionary from long time ago.

They stressed that the order is important. We should first be willing or else we could take a Bible verse out of context and interpret it to fit our liking. “Circumstantial evidence” should come after the Word, because we can easily be led astray when we rely primarily on what is seen on the surface. But don’t forget to think before you act and make sure you are carrying things out appropriately.

I think it makes pretty good sense. It’s a lot of work and not as simple as I like it to be. But spiritual discipline NEVER seems to be easy or simple. Hmmmm.

I actually didn’t have a chance to practice all the steps with the situation I was in at CC. But it was good to get some kind of guidance in response to my prayer. Maybe it will come in handy at later date…