Your Love is Strong by Guest Author, Casey Giffen
Singer songwriter Jon Foreman has a song entitled Your Love Is Strong. The lyrics relate an artistic interpretation to The Lord’s Prayer. Ironically, the first time I listened to Your Love Is Strong was traveling in southern China on a short-term missions trip during the summer of 2009, the same year the H1N1 virus manifested…in the USA. The lyrics did more than entertain me; they satisfied my soul as I traveled in a 24-seat government bus preparing to return home. Today, with the severity of the COVID-19 influenza, I think of my Chinese friends who undoubtedly are just as concerned as we in America. It is what it is. However, as I attempt to lessen the COVID-19 impact, my response to the severity of the virus seems significant.
A few years ago, the aspect of centering prayer was introduced to me on a Saturday morning at Monte Vista Chapel. A woman from the Bay Area representing Contemplative Outreach introduced participants to the process and provided opportunities to practice the holy experience, beginning with a sacred word and simply—as if simply is possible—focus on God by consenting to God’s presence and action within each individual.
Of late, Julian of Norwich’s “showings” (sixteen revelations of God’s love in a series of experienced visions) has been instrumental for me as I begin my centering prayer time. She writes about prayer:
“Prayer unites the soul to God, for though the soul may be always like God in nature and in substance restored by grace, it is often unlike him in condition, through sin on man’s part. Then prayer is a witness that the soul wills as God wills, and it eases the conscience and fits man for grace.”
As I attempt to navigate my “new normal” along with 154 million Americans experiencing a stay-at-home order, I struggle with my soul’s condition. I want my soul to rest in God’s sovereignty and grace in “nature and in substance,” but it’s not easy with its condition. I try to focus on God and his presence during centering prayer, but my mind swirls. I find myself fixating on others, on worst-case scenarios, on bleak outlooks, and even on my failure as an elder of the church, not leading and doing enough for others.
When completing my session of centering prayer, I focus on The Lord’s Prayer, intentionally taking my time as I prepare to reenter my “new normal” lifestyle. My sacred word the past few weeks has been grace. I think the word grace comforts me considerably because of my soul, how it’s constantly, lovingly being restored by the father ala Julian of Norwich’s notion of prayer. Consequently, I believe the Holy Spirit has gifted me this version of The Lord’s Prayer ala Jon Foreman:
Abba, who is in the heavens far and near,
your name is adorable. May your
way of doing life—the good life—be
acted out within this whirling world
like your triune ways in the heavens.
Give us exactly what we need, today, to
sustain us—no more and no less—and
free us from the actions we do and
fail to do, just like we open handedly liberate
those who do and don’t do things for us.
Please, arrange our comings and goings
so that we’re not saturated with the malevolent
brokenness of this reeling world, but
with your grace deliver us. Truly Abba,
yours is the real realm, the omnipotent order,
and the brilliant beauty…always, always. Amen.
Some of you may relate to my daily dilemma. If so, please be encouraged to contemplate Abba’s grace for you: his grace as we experience prayer, his grace as we pray The Lord’s Prayer, and his grace as our souls surrender to his strong love. As your soul unites with Abba through prayer, may you experience his grace fit just for you. Amen.