Reviving the blog

Blogs are out of date, now. But I need a spot to write some thoughts and this is as good a place as any. We are back in South Asia after a decade in the US. A different, easier-for-me country this time. God is teaching me about prayer and I am beginning Richard Foster's book, Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home. This will be where I record my thoughts and reflections.

Coming Home: an Invitation to Prayer is the title of this book's introduction. The first section is such a warm, passionate invitation to come to God! It evokes the beautiful image of the father of the prodigal as he stands in the road, arms open wide to receive the lost child as he returns. I am not a prodigal in that sense, but in another sense - one where I dwell many places other than the Father's arms and heart, I am indeed prodigal. 

Foster says "For too long we have been in a far country..." How true that is! Our lives, even as believers, when lived on their own are full of strife, frustration, fear. That is not the place of God, who invites us to intimacy, fullness, freedom, peace, and rest.

Using the image of a home, Foster goes through the various rooms to which we are invited - the kitchen - where friendship lies; the dining room - a place of refreshment and strength; the workshop where we join in labor with him; the study where we learn; and the bedroom where we find rest and intimacy. I think I (and many believers) are quite happy to enter into his study. And righly so, for there we learn great truths of who God is and of his boundless wisdom. We may also enter his workshop and labor for and with him. But how many of us - and here I include myself - venture into the kitchen to be his friend, or the dining room to truly feast on him. I think we venture into the bedroom from time to time to seek rest, but rarely do we stay long enough to encounter true intimacy.

God stands, as the father in the image, looking for me to return, longing to hold me in his arms, and to lavish his love upon me. That is where I want and NEED to be - each day, each hour, each moment.