What's me gonna do now?

My father in law used to say it whenever he couldn't clearly see the way to go in some crisis, "What's me gonna do now?" Interesting fellow, he was. Born in Chile, of Swiss parents who mostly spoke German, emigrated to Cullman, Ala. where he picked up southern English. Talk about an accent! A wonderful fellow, could grow anything God ever created.

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I was thinking about him the other day when I was "invited" to teach a class of ministers and laity a bit about monasticism. The person doing the "inviting" came up with the course title as "Monk Habits for Today's Stressed-Out Christians." Needless to say, that wouldn't have been my choice!

"What's me gonna do now?" Oh yeah, I'm to teach it one afternoon, a week from this Sunday, January 11th. Well, I suppose I can talk about regular prayer, it really staggers me sometimes when it is brought home to me again how many people have no real concept of prayer. Reminds me of the cartoon on a seminary wall. On the left is a congenial looking group of men in a loose circle. On the right is a lone figure, obviously the subject of the discussion. The caption reads, "And then the pastor asked Harry to pray, and all he could think of to say was, "Now I lay me down to sleep..." Funny, but a lot truer than I would like to admit. So, yes, prayer.

And then a bit about Lectio Divina for beginners. Slow, thoughtful reading of scripture, that might be the ticket. Stressed out, yeah, so many people I talk to are living on the knife edge all the time. Slow down, read a psalm, read it a phrase, a word, at a time and let your mind go with the flow of God's word for you as contained there in. A group of evangelicals might not find that to threatening.

But what and where from there is the question. Anyone want to throw out a few ideas? Thanks in advance and God bless!