How to Pray Aloud Like a Man, Part II

Last June I wrote a short post about a great piece written by David Murrow, called "How to Pray Aloud Like a Man".

I just found a sequel to that post, dated late last year. In it, he highlights a prayer by Rick Warren, aptly noting that it is well-suited to men. I read it and I like it:

• no Jesus/Lord/God repeated 2,300 times during a brief prayer
• no misuse of the word "just" 37 times in the same prayer
• a simple, direct, bold, scary prayer for God to use him

Food for thought tonight as my children sleep upstairs.

Cursing on The Crucible Weekend

I have a confession to make: I've cursed on a Christian men's weekend.

Um, yeah. I felt like this.

For some readers, this will seem a minor offense, almost silly. For others, it is a bellweather of spiritual discipline and maturity that leaves me...lacking.

One of (many) struggles against sin that I have not yet won is cursing. I know what the Bible says in verses like: Col 3:8, Eph 4:29, & James 3: 6-10, among others.

I've been called out on it by people at work and good friends whose faith, opinions, values, and Biblical perspectives I trust. And yet I've not mastered my tongue in this dimension.

I could excuse it away: pop culture, who I saw do it when I was growing up, culture in differnet companies or social groups or...whatever. I'm not going to do that: I do it, and I own it. I find myself tempted to tell you that jokes with swear words are not my bag, that I've told people to not tell them in front of me. But that is really trying to parse words, to gain favor, to take away the impact of what I say.

So what does it mean when on said Christian men's weekend, upon such an admitedly unGodly utterance, the room didn't empty--that righteous indignation & condemnation didn't rain down from all directions? Does it mean the staff & paricipants justify, nay even embrace cursing as "acceptable"? Let's set aside hysterics and histironics here: it just means the other guys didn't freak out.

Ahhhh, rats

But, you may wonder, didn't someone call me out on my sin? I'm willing to say someone did call me out on it, privately. He did so in a respectful, and challenging way.

I never did go back & poll the other men in the room about why they didn't call me out publicly, shame me, or freak out.

I will say that the issue of profanity is addressed on the weekend. I won't get into details; as I've blogged before, that is confidential.

In my experience, it wan't endorsed. It wasn't encouraged. And it wasn't used as a cudgel to shame me.