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Draw near: Praying about ambition

Lynne Baab • Tuesday January 17 2023

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.” —Abraham Lincoln, age 23, running for his first political office in 1832

Apart from the frustrating fact that people 150 years ago used “men” to refer to people, what do you think about Abraham Lincoln’s words? Is he describing a perspective that is consistent with Christian values because he focuses on developing an admirable character? Is he looking too strongly to people around him to...

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Draw near: Praying to be like water

Lynne Baab • Tuesday January 10 2023

I have always loved water. We lived in Athens, Greece when I was 2 and 3. My dad was assigned to the American Embassy there, and my mom took me to the beach almost every day. She tells me I paddled around in an area for kids, using an inflatable ring. Later I learned to swim, and I still remember those incredible moments of deep peace when I would let myself hang suspended under water. No pressure to be a perfect daughter! No pressure to conform to standards I didn’t understand! Just silence, my body in held in balance by the...

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Draw near: Loosening our grip

Lynne Baab • Tuesday January 3 2023

In her book Prayers in the Night, Rev. Tish Harrison Warren writes about the ways we relinquish control when we sleep. However, she notes that “our bodies and brains are not inactive in sleep. A whole world of activity happens inside our heads. We dream. We fight illness. We form, sort, and strengthen memories from our days.” Then she continues:

“And crucially, all of this happens without our knowledge, consent, or control. Our bodies require us to loosen our grip on self-sufficiency and power if we are to thrive. Both physically and spiritually, then, we must be willing to embrace vulnerability if...

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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...

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