Digging Deeper for Lent, Week 2: Puritan Prayers

I am using the Lenten season of the Church year to present a series of varied resources for spiritual formation. Last week I highlighted an excellent print and online news publication which is extremely helpful in developing/maintaining a Christian worldview.

This week, I’d like to introduce you to a body of work which exists in several formats. It is at least a couple of  hundred years old… and I just discovered it a month ago.

I have to give a hat tip once again to The Park Forum’s devotional blog, 843 Acres, which reprinted one of these extraordinary prayers and noted its source as a book titled The Valley of Vision. This book is still available in paperback and hardcover, both from Amazon and Christianbook.com.

Reason for Hope (…with thanks to @TheParkForum…)

I’ve recommended 843 Acres: The Devotional Blog of The Park Forum in this space previously. I continue to be very impressed by the quality of thought which goes into these devotionals, especially considering how very concise they are. A typical post is two or three paragraphs, and a prayer.

One from this past week which I found particularly meaningful was entitled The End of Fatalism. The author introduces the subject like this:

“One of the worst feelings in life is fatalism–that is, the feeling of resignation that this is the way things will be forever and nothing will change. That this is the way that I am or my spouse is or my kids are or work is or our government is or our society is. That I am powerless to do anything about it. That it will go on this way forever and, most likely, it will just get worse.”

Wow, can I relate to that. There are many days when I read some news article or commentary and it fills me with despair for our country, and fear for my little granddaughter. 

Bad News, Good News

Yep, that’s Marie!

I’ve just come home quite late from attending my oldest niece’s ballet performance at Masterworks in Winona Lake, IN.  Founded by Patrick Kavanaugh, this annual four-week arts camp brings together young people (age 14 to 26) who are passionate to hone their natural abilities in a God-honoring atmosphere, with Christians who are professionals in the various artistic disciplines.

The performance was outstanding, and uplifting. I can see clearly how much Marie is growing, as a dancer and as a believer.

The bad news is I’m just too tired to write anything worth reading for Sunday. The good news is that I’ve recently found a fellow WordPress blogger who writes an excellent short devotional blog, 843 Acres, each Monday through Friday.