Confessions of a Chronic Switcher

The following will be published in the February 2008 issue of Tidings, the Newsletter of Immanuel Lutheran Church and School.

In my personal life, I am perpetually changing things around, never satisfied. I will use one program or device for awhile to keep track of things I need to do, and then switch when something else comes along - always looking for the magical device or system that will help me stay on top of everything I need and want to do. Same for calendars. And email. And exercising. And ...

I will probably always be this way, although I am trying to change. Really!

But the worst for me has been prayer and Scriptural meditation. When I was in college, I used a "One-Year Bible" I had been given - a book with the whole text of the Scriptures organized so that you read a passage from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms, and by the end of the year one would have read the whole Bible. As I began to become aware of liturgical forms of daily prayer, I switched to the Book of Common Prayer and followed its lectionary (order for daily readings). Then, I discovered Lutheran Worship, our old blue hymnal, and from there, moved back in time to The Lutheran Hymnal. Then I discovered a tome called The Pastor at Prayer, with its own set of forms, including a chart for reading through the Lutheran Confessions in about a year. Then I got a four-volume set called For All the Saints, a kind of Lutheran breviary, with Matins, Vespers, and devotional readings from outside the Bible. These ran the gamut from early church fathers to twentieth-century figures including such questionable writers as Albert Schweitzer. "Too liberal!" I decided; time to switch again. Along came the Hymnal Supplement '98, with its brief orders of daily prayer, and a new pattern for reading the Bible every day. There were nifty cards that CPH printed up, and I latched onto those.

Being an early-music buff, I was thrilled when The Brotherhood Prayer Book was published by a new band of like-minded souls called the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood. Fantastic! It has Gregorian chant psalms, printed up in an old form of musical notation that even most musicians cannot read. This fit my quirky desire to be both faithful and anachronistic nicely. The problem comes once one realizes that A) no one else who lives near you [or with you!] can follow along and join you; and B) one needs to live a monastic life to actually do all of the things in the book. Morning Prayer alone can take over an hour! (Of course, I still use it when I can, and recently bought the second edition...)

Now we have Lutheran Service Book, and I have been trying in all things to conform myself to the pattern of this book. I have come to believe that it is exceedingly important that everyone in the Missouri Synod "be on the same page," even if one thinks he knows better or can improve upon it. Unity and harmony are deeply important, and if we don't act like it in our own lives and churches, how can we expect it among all the churches?

But the real lesson in all of this is that daily prayer and Scripture reading is important. While some books and systems are better than others, more thorough, more accessible, more traditional, more in step with the weekly liturgy and church year, the truly important thing is what the old Nike commercials said: "Just do it!" Quit worrying so much about the system, and just read! So every day, I'm using LSB morning and evening.

With Lent upon us, I encourage you to begin, or renew, your dedication to prayer and Scripture reading. Just do it! Buy a copy of Lutheran Service Book. Along with a Bible, it's the only thing you need. There are tables for daily reading, charts for using the Psalms, and orders for family devotions, on pages 294-304. Starting on page 305, there are model prayers for all kinds of different situations. An important discipline of Lent is renewing a life of prayer. Please make this your foremost commitment this Lent. God speaks to you, and gives you His gifts, through His Word, and He delights in hearing your prayers. If some days you are lazy/sick/busy/tired/pick your excuse - then simply start again as soon as possible. Just do it! God bless you in your Lenten disciplines, and may He brings us all to that final Easter in the life of the world to come.