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Potter’s Wheel....

is a missional community of Spiritual Formation pursuing a deep, intimate relationship with God that will transform our lives and equip us to be vessels of God’s love to those our lives encounter.


And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter.

We are all formed by you hand. Isaiah 64:8

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Searching for....and FINDING...a portable chapel of prayer

Life on the Potter’s Wheel


There is a community of people who live in the very northeastern part of England where it is bordered by Scotland and the North Sea.  It’s called the Northumbria Community.  It’s not monastic in the idea of living all together, sharing the dwelling and a common purse, rather it’s about intention because the people of this community are scattered all over Great Britain and well beyond.  There are those who live this rugged part of England but it appears that in most cases there are those who never do.  They just continue to live ordinary daily lives with all the usual demands of work and family, school and home and all the little and big things that go along with it. 

I was reading the introduction to their book, “Celtic Daily Prayer”. In it Richard Foster tells of a visit to Northumbria and conversations with two of the actual residents who show him unique isolated places that have been and in one person’s case is still used as a solitary, out of the way spot where they have been able to connect with God.  After visiting these two places, Foster comments, “I am profoundly struck by the image of a prayer chapel right at the center of this place of retreat and renewal. How appropriate, how fitting, how right.  I am drawn to consider how at the very center of my home, my place of work, my very life, there could always be a portable chapel of prayer.”  This sentence really gave me pause because of how it reflects my own recent journey.

For the last number of weeks I’ve been visiting a wide variety of coffee locals – both busy and quiet, a couple of parks, and a few other places and the exploration continues.  In truth there is a part of me that’s looking for that “portable chapel of prayer”.  This week as I’d been thinking more about it and came upon Foster’s words I’ve been really considering that this portable chapel has far less to do with any actual location, although certainly there are places where God meets us in unique and wonderful ways, rather it’s so much more about accessing that place in my heart, my soul where I offer myself up most fully to engaging with God.  Sometimes it’s outside in a beautiful setting, the corner of the couch in my living room, a coffee house in Brookside or in my car driving across town.  So, while there are always wonderful aesthetic qualities to places or prayer tools or music but the real portable prayer chapel is quite simply that place in me, “the very center of my home, my place of work, my very life…” 

The journey of this discovery is something that the people of Northumbria share no matter where they are physically.  It’s something that we can share as well.  That’s the community; together or apart that is a unique sharing that this missional community of Potter’s Wheel can do “together” no matter our location through the week.

We'll be gathering for a time of refreshment and prayer at 5:00 Sunday evening at the court yard at Second Church at 55th and Brookside.   Come join us!


God’s Peace,

Mary


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