Starbucks Journal #1

A mother and her three children. Kevin is sick, he's the youngest. His mom bought him an orange juice & gave him a straw, but he drunk his juice straight from the bottle. His older brother and sister get hot chocolates and madeline cookies, Katie ate 5 and Kevin used his as a sponge to clean up orange juice he had spilled. He still ate that cookie. Their mom left to get the stroller, she was taking them to the pharmacy to pick up Kevin's medicine. Katie said "Oh no, she's got the stroller."

Maybe it's just that so few years and so little life experience has allowed them to appreciate the world and each other, but the love you can see between these children, their unity, isn't something you see often. 

An old couple. The man reads  the paper and drinks a tall cup of coffee with his chocolate donut. The woman writes a letter to her relatives while she drinks her tall nonfat extra-hot latte through a straw. When they speak to one another you can see their love for one another. When they look at one another you can see their togetherness, their mutual care, their peace. There's little evidence that would suggest individuality, they are one & they are happy reading & writing & drinking coffee together.

Maybe it's just that so many years and so much life experience has brought them to a point of appreciation for the world and for each other, but the love you can see between these people, their unity, isn't something you see often.

A man and his pre-teen son. The man buys a sandwich at 10 A.M. to go with his coffee and the son get a piece of  coffee cake and a chocolaty frappuccino. They only stay for a minute, they have to be off. They're disconnected. Do they love each other? Do they have time?

Maybe it's just that life is too busy to stop for 5 minutes at Starbucks. But the love I can't see between these people, their disconnection, is something you see far too often.

Love & unity in the beginning and in the end. 

We get lost in the middle. 

Prayer

I was just talking to Brian Lenney at church after he opened the service in prayer.

Brian said something like "I hate praying in front of people like that."

To put words in his mouth, the reason is, I think, that it makes him feel like the prayer is scripted. He is talking to his Father in heaven, but also somehow to the Elders, the Congregation, Fuller professors, Pastors. On top of that, there are certain people & things he is urged to pray for, whether or not he knows the people or the situations. Prayer becomes scripted, prayer becomes a production which Brian & everyone else are required to take part in. Prayer in this context is a drama production more than it is prayer.

Brian said something like "I hate praying in front of people like that."

We started talking more about that issue.... In Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship, he talks about the fact that Jesus identifies prayer as dialogue with the Father. Bonhoeffer states that this example of prayer, as well as many others, indicate that prayer should be a discussion between a child and a child's father. 

My small group has brought up the idea of "child-like" faith the last couple weeks. We see value in this kind of faith, this kind of discipleship, this kind of Christianity. The hope is that pre-stipulations are lost and innocence is embraced. In a situation where prayer seems prescribed rather than natural discussion, we have to remember that we are like a 5 year-old child talking to our daddy; we have to remember that we are lowly & he is beyond comprehension, magnificent, and perhaps above all these things, listening intently to his child whom he loves and with whom he is well pleased. We have to remember to pray to God with the uncontainable joy that we must have when we begin to think about his loving embrace. I don't know how well I can't put that feeling into words.

Maybe then we can bring back some innocence. Maybe then we can pray.