A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Practicum

I confess mixed results in my attempts to do the weekly "prayer practicum" connected with the summer teaching theme. Take this past week [note: Dave wrote this the end of August] as an example. The "practicum" was to pray the 23rd Psalm every day. It was included in the bulletin and Pastor Kent instructed us at the end of his Sunday message. I recall that evening thinking I would do that beginning Monday. And I did. But somehow I had made a subconscious switch from the 23rd Psalm to the Lord's Prayer! (blame it on an easily distracted mind)

So Monday morning I began, thinking I would pray and think about that prayer, taking one line or phrase for each day of the week. I had done something like that years ago and remembered it as a good thing. This went well, but on Wednesday I was rushed and decided to "combine" this prayer/meditation with my morning walk. About midway through the walk I suddenly realized that the prayer I was repeating was not the Lord's Prayer, but the 23rd Psalm. Whether it was the easily distracted mind or the open fields and pastures along the way, I don't know, but it happened. Of course I wondered, "OK, which was the right scripture for this week?". But then I began to have a sense that they were vaguely related.

One link that came to me had to do with the phrase in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead me not into temptation". That has always seemed enigmatic to me.
It sounds like a theological contradiction. I did not resolve the puzzle on my walk and I won't here. But it made me reflect on the way the shepherd leads the sheep as described in Psalm 23. "He leads me....beside still waters; in right paths.." "Even though I walk through the darkest valley ('temptation'?), I fear no evil." A shepherd--or a father--may lead through hard places, but it is comforting to be able to trust the one who is leading.

As you can tell, I did find my way back home. And I do promise to pay more attention in church next time.

Dave Shelman