{"id":306580,"date":"2020-11-26T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/what-is-liturgy\/"},"modified":"2020-11-26T07:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T12:00:04","slug":"what-is-liturgy","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/what-is-liturgy\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Liturgy?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Douglas Kaine McKelvey talks about when he was introduced to the Book of Common Prayer and how it changed his thinking about structured prayer. McKelvey explains the meaning of liturgy, and gives an example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"https:\/\/mp3.familylife.com\/fl2020-11-26.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:27:25","filesize":"25.11M","filesize_raw":"26328168","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2822],"tags":[2210],"podcast_series":[8297],"cwp_profile":[9552],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-306580","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growing-in-your-faith","tag-prayer","podcast_series-every-moment-holy","cwp_profile-douglas-kaine-mckelvey","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/306580\/what-is-liturgy","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/306580\/what-is-liturgy","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xGFCLrHwpC\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/what-is-liturgy\/\">What Is Liturgy?<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/what-is-liturgy\/embed\/#?secret=xGFCLrHwpC\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;What Is Liturgy?&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"xGFCLrHwpC\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>\n"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg",508,508,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kfairris@familylife.com","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/kfairrisfamilylife-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Douglas Kaine McKelvey talks about when he was introduced to the Book of Common Prayer and how it changed his thinking about structured prayer. McKelvey explains the meaning of liturgy, and gives an example.","meta_box":{"show_notes":"","transcript_url":"https:\/\/transcript.familylife.com\/fl2020-11-26.pdf","transcript_content":"<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Doug McKelvey remembers a spiritual turning-point in his life when somebody gave him a prayer book\u2014a <em>Book of Common Prayer<\/em>\u2014to use for daily devotions. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>More than anything else in it, it was the prayer of confession that just struck me, and specifically the phrase where we\u2019re repenting for things done and things left undone. That stuck in my brain like a grain of sand in an oyster and helped to shape my theology in certain ways over the decades that followed.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>This is <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> for Thursday, November 26<sup>th<\/sup>, Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Our hosts are Dave and Ann Wilson; I'm Bob Lepine. We\u2019ll hear today about how God took Doug McKelvey on a spiritual journey from that introduction to a prayer of confession in the Anglican <em>Book of Common Prayer<\/em>, and we\u2019ll hear about how we can make every moment in our lives more holy. Stay with us.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd welcome to <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>. Thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition, the Thanksgiving Day edition here in the United States. I should confess, as we start today, I grew up with a prejudice. My prejudice was\u2014this was shaped\u2014I need to explain this. I grew up in a church, where I don\u2019t remember hearing the gospel shared. We were regular going to church, in part because I liked to sing in the choir. They had a good high school choir, so that\u2019s why I was going. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIn\u2014I think it was\u2014tenth grade, I went through communicant\u2019s class. Now, communicant\u2019s class meant they were thinking about letting me into the church; right? This was church membership: you go through the class; you learn this; then you are welcomed in, and you have your first communion. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI went through this class, and one of the papers that I had to write for this class was on \u201cWhat Things Would You Change about the Church and Why?\u201d One of the things I said is: \u201cI would change these rote prayers that get prayed in church, because nobody means what they\u2019re saying. They\u2019re just reading words off of a page.\u201d I thought it was in conflict with what Jesus teaches in Matthew, Chapter 6, about vain repetition: \u201cDon\u2019t do this vain repetition.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tHere\u2019s what I grew up, thinking: \u201cLiturgy equals lifeless. There\u2019s no spiritual life in liturgy. It\u2019s just a form; it\u2019s just a pattern. You go through it, and at the end of the day, nothing\u2019s happened. If your spirituality is spontaneous, there\u2019s life there; but if it\u2019s formal, there\u2019s no life in that.\u201d I held onto that prejudice for a long time, <em>until<\/em> I was in New York City\u2014the first time I\u2019d ever gone to New York. I went to St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in New York City.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ann: <\/strong>How old were you at this time?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>I\u2019m in my mid-30s. I was just looking at St. Patrick\u2019s\u2014never seen a big cathedral like this\u2014it was beautiful. This was after-hours; it was on a Sunday. They\u2019d had worship services there; somebody had left the liturgy from that service on the chair. With my presupposition, I kind of picked it up, looking at it, going, \u201cYes; I wonder what kind of hocus-pocus is in here.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI opened it up and I started reading through the prayer of confession that was in this liturgy. I was, all of a sudden, struck by the fact that this prayer that was printed out here was a little more substantive in terms of confessing sin than I usually was in my spontaneous confession of sin. This was actually a guide that would help me think more clearly and more deeply about what I ought to be talking to God about at this point. If all I was doing was chanting the words, then clearly that\u2019s nothing; but if I\u2019m looking at this and going, \u201cThis can help guide me <em>deeper<\/em> in my spiritual journey than I would normally go on my own,\u201d\u2014that was a paradigm shift for me\u2014to start to go, \u201cSome of the things that our fathers before us knew about the Christian life, we can learn from.\u201d Now, there\u2019s balance in all of that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe reason I tell the story is because we\u2019re going to talk today about liturgy, which is a pretty unusual subject on <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>. Some of our listeners may be going: \u201cYou\u2019re talking about <em>what?<\/em>\u2014[Laughter]\u2014liturgy? I\u2019m not even sure what that means, and I\u2019m a little afraid of it.\u201d Maybe they have my prejudice against liturgy.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tDid you ever think about liturgy or liturgical forms?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ann: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t grow up in the church, but I do remember stepping inside a few churches. Everyone would stand and would repeat the liturgy, and I was confused by it\u2014like: \u201cWhat is happening? Do people <em>mean<\/em> this?\u201d The words were beautiful\u2014I was struck by the depth and meaning of the words\u2014but I also thought: \u201cDo <em>I<\/em> feel this? Should I say it if I <em>don\u2019t<\/em> feel this?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhat did you have, Dave?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dave: <\/strong>I remember, 12 years old, Episcopal church\u2014standing there as a young boy with my single mom and doing liturgy\/reciting it and feeling some of the same things you did, like: \u201cDo we mean this? Do we understand this?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI do remember the feeling in that church. This was a church that, when my little brother died, Reverent Ashton was in our home to help us through that. It was high church, and I missed it later.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Yes.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dave: <\/strong>You know, I don\u2019t think I <em>understood<\/em> it as a young boy. I was sort of like you, Bob; I started trying to piece it together and say, \u201cIs this deep, and is it meaningful?\u201d I didn\u2019t discover it was until years later.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Yes; well, we have a guy joining us today, who has embraced liturgy in kind of a whole new way. In fact, he\u2019s written a book called <em>Every Moment Holy<\/em>, which is a collection of liturgies for\u2014not for church use\u2014but for personal use.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ann: <\/strong>\u2014for every area of your life, basically.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>A liturgy for laundering, a liturgy for washing of windows, for home repair, before taking the stage\u2014that\u2019s one maybe we should have gone through\u2014[Laughter]\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ann: <\/strong>I think some moms would be thinking: \u201cWhat?! I\u2019m going to read this before I do my laundry? I can barely pray! How do we do this?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Exactly; so Doug McKelvey joins us. Doug, welcome to <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Thank you so much.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Hearing us talk about our views of liturgy\u2014you grew up in east Texas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>I did.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Did you grow up in a liturgical tradition?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>I did not. It was interesting\u2014hearing you describe <em>your<\/em> journey\u2014because in some ways, mine was similar, though coming from a different perspective, denominationally. I grew up very much with a suspicion of anything liturgical\/of anything that seemed formalized rather than spontaneous.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIt was only during the time that I was in college that really the wheels came off of the theology that I had sort of accumulated, along the course of my years growing up. I was left not knowing what to believe, other than the basic fundamentals of the faith.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>A crisis of faith for you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Very much so; very much so. It was during that time that I was first introduced to the <em>Book of Common Prayer. <\/em>More than anything else in it, it was the prayer of confession that just struck me; because as I read it, I just instinctively thought, \u201cThis is something I can trust.\u201d There\u2019s the weight of the history of the body of believers that have gone before me, who have crafted their theology\/a scriptural theology into an expression that can lead me\/that can guide me\u2014specifically, the phrase where we\u2019re repenting for things done and things left undone.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Yes.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>That stuck in my brain like a grain of sand in an oyster and helped to shape my theology in certain ways over the decades that followed.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>When I would sit down to confess sin\u2014I know I\u2019m supposed to do this\u2014so I should reflect and \u201cWhat do I need to confess?\u201d\u2014I\u2019m consciously thinking, \u201cOkay; what bad things have I done?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe prayer of confession in the <em>Book of Common Prayer,<\/em> which says, \u201cLord, we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed.\u201d Now, I hadn\u2019t stopped to consider what bad <em>thoughts<\/em> that I had; I was just thinking, \u201cWhat bad things have I <em>done<\/em>?\u201d I wasn\u2019t thinking, \u201cWhat bad <em>words<\/em> have I said?\u201d I was just thinking, \u201caction.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThen, I wasn\u2019t thinking things I <em>hadn\u2019t<\/em> done that I should have done, to your point; because it\u2019s: \u201cWe have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by things done and things left undone. We have not loved You with our whole hearts; we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves\u2026\u201d All of a sudden, I\u2019m going: \u201cOh, it\u2019s worse than I realized.\u201d My sin is a bigger deal\u2014the categories for sin have now been expanded\u2014not just \u201cWhat wrong thing did I do earlier today?\u201d but \u201cWhat impure thoughts have I had?\u201d or \u201cWhat should I have done that I ignored?\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ann: <\/strong>And yet, it feels impersonal in some ways. If you\u2019re all standing together; you\u2019re reciting this together\u2014it\u2019s not your personal sin, necessarily\u2014so how is it more personal?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Well, I think probably to explore that question, we should back up a little bit and maybe clear up some misunderstanding of the word, \u201cliturgy,\u201d because the reality is\u2014every church has liturgy, because liturgy is just a term that means the form, and content, and order of a church service.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>So if you sing three songs, and then the preacher gets up and preaches, and then you say a closing prayer, that\u2019s your liturgy.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>That\u2019s your liturgy; yes. It\u2019s not that there are some churches with liturgy and some without. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI find it interesting\u2014in looking back at my own bias <em>against<\/em> things that were more formally liturgical when I was younger\u2014and I would like to go back and ask my 16- and 18- and 20-year-old self, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on with the Lord\u2019s Prayer?\u201d When the disciples come to Jesus and ask Him, \u201cTeach us how to pray,\u201d and He tells them to pray this prayer\u2014this <em>beautiful<\/em> prayer that is <em>so<\/em> packed with deep theological truths and meaning\u2014and that you could spend a lifetime\/and we should spend a lifetime meditating on and praying that prayer repeatedly\u2014not as a magical incantation; right?\u2014but as a deep expression of truth that will lead our hearts, that will form and shape our theology, that will further shape our relationship to God and to what we are to be about.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Jesus has just said\u2014before He teaches them to pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer, He said, \u201cDon\u2019t use vain repetition.\u201d So, to the extent that somebody stands up and just mindlessly recites the Lord\u2019s Prayer, they\u2019re violating what Jesus just said about prayer; right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Right.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Should we think of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, and church liturgy, or the prayer of confession we talked about, or the prayers that you include in <em>Every Moment Holy<\/em>\u2014should we think of these less as scripts to follow and more as prompts for us in our spiritual lives?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>I think, for many people, that would be the most beneficial approach. I think, for a lot of people, myself included, with some of the prayers that I pray weekly from the <em>Book of Common Prayer<\/em>\u2014rather than just being a prompt\u2014they do end up being deeply meaningful and an articulation of things that I would not be able to express in the moment, apart from having that guide.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSomething that has been very encouraging, in terms of feedback that I\u2019ve had from some of the prayers in <em>Every Moment Holy,<\/em> there is this refrain of people, saying: \u201cOur beloved dog died that we had had for 12 years. Our kids were devastated, and we were devastated; and we didn\u2019t know what to say\/how to pray. The liturgy for \u2018The Loss of a Living Thing\u201d gave us the words to express what was already in our hearts but that, spontaneously, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Turn to that one; will you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Sure.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Think of a family that\u2019s lost a pet, or maybe it\u2019s an extended relative\/a loved one\u2014but a loss of life\u2014and there\u2019s grief going on. I think of Romans 8, which talks about we have \u201cgroanings too deep for words.\u201d We don\u2019t know how to pray, so the Spirit prays for us; but if somebody comes along and says, \u201cThis can help shape your thinking and your prayers,\u201d that could be beneficial.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tJust instruct us; we\u2019ll be your kids. We don\u2019t know what to do; we\u2019ve just lost a pet. You explain to us, Dad, what we\u2019re about to do in reading through this together; okay?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Okay; so this is how it begins: \u201cKing of creation, here was Your good creature.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>And then there\u2019s a moment of silence, you say in the book. Those who are gathered can center their thoughts and prepare their hearts in that moment.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>\u201cHere was Your good creature, oh Lord, pondered and called to life by Your own compassionate design.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Then the family, or the kids, or whoever, would respond and say\u2014\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob, Dave, and Ann: <\/strong>\u201cHere was your good creature, and here were spaces and the days we shared, enjoying the glad company and cheerful fellowship of a fellow creature.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>\u201cWe made room in our lives, room in our home, room in our hearts to welcome Your unique creation; and we gave Your good creature the name\u2026\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>And you\u2019d insert the name.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob, Dave, and Ann: <\/strong>\u201cWe were filled with a right and fond affection for another living thing Your hands had made, delighting daily in its presence.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>\u201cNow this season of our shared lives is ended by death.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob, Dave, and Ann: <\/strong>\u201cOur hearts are unprepared for such loss, and we are deeply grieved.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>And it goes on from there; continues, actually, for one, two\u2014a couple pages.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThis is, again, to help guide the folks, who have experienced the loss, into processing it in a godly way\/in a biblical way\u2014to think about loss and life and God and death rightly.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>Right; I now recognize that, in the very process of prayerfully thinking through a particular subject\u2014like this one we\u2019re talking about now, the grieving for the loss of a pet\u2014in thinking through that, wanting to understand, scripturally, where our hope lies in that; and how to navigate this process of grief; and how to help our kids navigate this process of grief and find hope, even, in the midst of it.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI now recognize that the Holy Spirit is just as present in that thoughtful crafting and thinking through of a prayer, and the creation of it, as the Holy Spirit is present in a spontaneously-offered prayer; and that it really has so much more to do, in the praying of it, with the posture of our hearts and our willingness and ability to enter into that communion with our Creator in the midst of the moment.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>Well, Dave and I are in the weekly rhythm of preparing sermons for churches. If we said: \u201cYou know, the only really valid sermon would be one that came spontaneously. You just need to get up\u2014[Laughter]\u2014right?\u2014in the moment, just come up spontaneously with whatever you\u2019re going to say; because anything that you prepared ahead of time would be formal.\u201d Well, there\u2019d be some really bad sermons!\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dave: <\/strong>There would, and there are. [Laughter] There are some that would say, \u201cThat\u2019s the only time the Holy Spirit would lead a sermon\u201d; and it\u2019s both\/and; right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tYou know, it is interesting\u2014in the forward that Andrew Peterson wrote\u2014I mean, something caught me, as I was reading it, which is exactly what you were just saying. We sort of just experienced it. He says these words\u2014he says, \u201cThere are no unsacred moments; there are only sacred moments and moments we have forgotten are sacred.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI love your title, <em>Every Moment Holy.<\/em> It\u2019s like: \u201cEvery moment is pregnant,\u201d\u2014you know\u2014and you\u2019re sort of asking us to \u201cStop and center.\u201d We were walking up here, to walk in the studio, and bumped into a woman. She has used your book; and we said, \u201cHow do you use it?\u201d She said, \u201cIt centers me.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>My wife does laundry once a week. I mean, I\u2019m just imagining the rhythm of a wife saying, \u201cOh, it\u2019s laundry day; I need to get out the book, <em>Every Moment Holy<\/em>, and do the liturgy for laundry.\u201d I mean, that just seems so <em>odd<\/em>; right?! I mean, you wrote it; does that not seem odd to you?\u2014that you\u2019d get up and do the liturgy for laundry before you wash the clothes?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Doug: <\/strong>I can recognize the part of it that seems odd\/what seems like an ironic tension at first. But I think that tension exists for us to the degree that our vision of God\u2019s sovereignty over every part of our life and His presence in every moment is deficient. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe reality\u2014I think all of us would agree that God <em>is<\/em> present in every moment\/that there is nothing lost in God\u2019s economy. Everything that we do, no matter how mundane and necessary in our lives, takes its context in the larger story of redemption. It\u2019s all going somewhere\u2014it\u2019s all going to the new heavens and the new earth\u2014and our lives now and the parts of our lives now are not disconnected from that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe experience them as disconnected sometimes, but that\u2019s why I wrote this book; because I wanted to remind myself. I thought, \u201cIf I could remind myself, maybe it would also serve to remind <em>other<\/em> people.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dave: <\/strong>Yes; and I\u2019ll add this\u2014you know, even looking at the title and walking through your prayers in here, it reminds you what you just said: \u201cEvery moment is holy.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ann: <\/strong>\u2014and it\u2019s inviting God <em>into<\/em> every moment.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dave: <\/strong>We have a tendency to think it\u2019s a holy moment when it\u2019s epic. I mean, I\u2019ve been in the NFL for 33 seasons. I went through 12 different coaches with the Detroit Lions, and <em>every<\/em> single coach wanted liturgy before we went on the field\u2014they didn\u2019t know it\u2014but they wanted me to lead the team in the Lord\u2019s Prayer before we walked on the field. Why?\u2014because this is epic; their livelihoods are on it; it\u2019s the most important thing in the world: \u201cWe have to pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer\u201d\u2014right?\u2014that\u2019s liturgy to them.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe don\u2019t do that when we do the laundry; we don\u2019t\u2014it\u2019s like: \u201cNo; every moment is like an NFL game. It\u2019s pregnant with meaning, so stop and center yourself.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob: <\/strong>I would hope our listeners would go online, and there\u2019s information about your book available. We have it in our <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> Resource Center. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI can imagine a family getting something like this and going, \u201cThis is so different than anything that has been a part of our family\u2019s spiritual journey,\u201d and just saying, \u201cLet\u2019s, once a week, pick one of these prayers\u2014something that\u2019s aligned with what\u2019s going on in our lives\u2014and let\u2019s read it. We\u2019ll read slowly, and we\u2019ll talk about it as we read it, and let\u2019s just see what it\u2019s like to bring God into the laundry.\u201d Think of how that would shape the way your children think differently about life and about God and how all of that comes together.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAgain, we have copies of Doug\u2019s book, <em>Every Moment Holy<\/em>, in our <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> Resource Center. You can order it from us, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com; and by the way, it\u2019s a <em>beautiful<\/em> book. It\u2019s something that your family will enjoy looking at. Order it from us at FamilyLifeToday.com, or call to order at 1-800-FL-TODAY. The book, again, is <em>Every Moment Holy<\/em>\u2014online at FamilyLifeToday.com, or call 1-800-358-6329\u2014that\u2019s 1-800-\u201cF\u201d as in family, \u201cL\u201d as in life, and then the word, \u201cTODAY.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tOn this Thanksgiving Day, of course, we are all thinking about the things for which we are thankful. One of the things for which we are thankful is the privilege we have of connecting with you every day: some of you on this local radio station, some of you are listening via podcast or through the FamilyLife<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> app, some of you are simply telling Alexa<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> to \u201cPlay <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.\u201d However we\u2019re connecting, thanks for making us part of your commute, or your jogging, or your time around the house. However you listen, we\u2019re glad to have you along. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI\u2019m imagining that, for some of you, are not regular listeners; but because of the Thanksgiving Day holiday and your schedule, you have tuned in and listened to this program. If you\u2019re a new listener, welcome! If you\u2019d like to find out more about FamilyLife, go to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com. Learn about the resources we have available, about the events we host, and all that we\u2019re doing at FamilyLife to effectively develop godly marriages and families.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tFor those of you, who are long-time listeners, the reason you\u2019ve been able to connect with FamilyLife through the years is because of friends of this ministry who make this program possible\u2014listeners like you who donate so that <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> can continue with our work of effectively developing godly marriages and families. If you are a regular listener, and you\u2019ve never made a donation, on Thanksgiving Day would be a good day to say, \u201cThank you,\u201d to FamilyLife and make a donation. You can do that, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhen you do, we\u2019d like to return the thanks by sending you a set of Christmas tree ornaments you can use with your kids during the Christmas season to help introduce them to the One whose birth we celebrate in December. We call this \u201cThe Twelve Names of Christmas\u201d\u2122. The ornaments are our thank-you gift to you when you make a donation today. Again, you can do that, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAgain, thanks for listening today; it\u2019s always good to have you along. I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you can join us, again, tomorrow when we\u2019re going to talk about some of the everyday moments in life, and how we can be careful to see God at work in those moments, and acknowledge His work in those moments. Doug McKelvey is going to be back with us again. I hope you can be here as well.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our hosts, Dave and Ann Wilson, I\u2019m Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas; a Cru<sup>\u00ae <\/sup>Ministry. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are so happy to provide these transcripts to you. However, there is a cost to produce them for our website. If you\u2019ve benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/donate\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tCopyright <sup>\u00a9<\/sup> 2020 FamilyLife. 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