Don’t Hold in the Sneeze!
Consider these gorgeous words of the “Venite” from our rite of Daily Morning Prayer (p. 44 of “The Book of Common Prayer”):
The sea is his and he made it,
and his hands prepared the dry land.
These words are an almost daily utterance for me as Morning Prayer has become an anchor and source of rhythm in my life. For you, reading this “Daily Word” may be that anchor for your rhythmic, daily time with God. If I am honest, I have grown quite comfortable with my routine and this rhythm in my relationship with our Lord. This may be why summer travel and vacations can be, at once, a welcome respite from the inherent daily stresses, but also an uncomfortable disruption for me.
A few months ago, I was reminded of something Rowan Williams, the Anglican priest, poet and former Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote that changed my mind about the power of being unmoored from our routines — even those prayer routines. “Prayer is God’s work in us,” Williams said, and “Christians pray because they have to, because the Spirit is surging up inside them. Prayer, in other words, is more like sneezing – there comes a point where you can’t not do it.”[1]
I experienced this on the last morning of a recent vacation. In the predawn hours, I sat on the shore as the powerful Pacific Ocean pounded the beach and felt what could only be described as a sneeze. I whispered, “The sea is his and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land.” While I say this prayer of adoration daily in my office, repeating it 1,000 miles away on that unfamiliar beach took on such resonance. And now, every time I recite the Venite, I am taken back to the sound of those rushing waves on a remote beach far away. Oh, the power of God's familiar words in unfamiliar places!
The summer months provide rich opportunities to reacquaint ourselves with the fullness of prayer and the intimacy of God in our lives. Out of routines and daily rhythms, we might find a fresh and heightened awareness of God’s presence in our lives. Maybe that will come while on a mountain hike, watching your children play at a barbecue, or embracing a loved one you haven’t seen in much too long.
Let us pray that God would pour out His grace on us, that we would experience the Spirit surging up inside us and offer a prayer at that moment to Almighty God. Let us come to the point where we can’t do it. Let us not hold in the sneeze!
[1] Rowan Williams. “Being Christian.”
