The Noon Call By Lisa BordenLisa Borden - 18 Mar 2008
I’m climbing into this rickety old Land Cruiser on a hot African day. I am stressed, (feel the knot in my left shoulder to confirm it lest you are fooled by my calm appearance.) I am tired, (because of a new puppy in the house who cries like a baby in the night.) I am feeling inadequate, (due to the fact that if you look any direction at all in Africa, you’ll see pain and suffering so great, it threatens to snuff my efforts right out.) And, I’m late. There are a bundle of kids at home today who would like lunch soon and I really do need to get to the shops now.Shifting the big beast of a truck into reverse, I am surprised by the alarm on my mobile phone. No matter how many days in a row in goes off at noon, I never seem to expect it. The twangy little tune it plays is kind of annoying. I wish I knew a way to set the alarm to some deep mission bells sound. There must be an alarm tone that better reflects the reason for the noon call.
Last October in Seville, some of us heard about the Guilford Boiler Room and their noontime offering of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a simple rhythm that their community has entered into as one way to encourage a lifestyle of prayer. Together or apart, the alarms go off and the ancient lines are lifted up to our Father. The invitation was made for any of the rest of us around the world to join the noon prayers in whatever time zone we find ourselves. I decided then and there that I was going to do this.
But I forgot.
It wasn’t until early February when I was sitting in a small gathering of 24-7 folks in Scotland that I remembered. Suddenly, in the middle of our meeting, several phones and watches started going off. Pausing in the middle of our discussion to repeat the words that Jesus taught us, I felt their beauty and power.
Back inside the Land Cruiser I close my eyes.
“Dear Father in heaven, your name is holy. Please, let your kingdom come here just as it is in heaven. Give us today what we need and forgive us. Help us to also forgive and don’t let us be led off into temptation. Deliver us from evil. Yours is the kingdom, yours is the power and yours is the glory forever. Amen.”
I don’t always paraphrase it. I just felt like it today. I love the old text and hold nothing against the word trespasses. I like the stately lilt of an exact quotation and most days I fall into line with it. But I’m not much into rules and the free form felt right to me today.What I’m enjoying about this midday pause to pray is that it re-sets me. I am calmed and centered by the re-alignment that it brings. I exhale the silly things that are getting at me. I inhale the fragrance of another kingdom. I invite that kingdom here. And I join hands with others across the globe that are doing the same.
Lisa has spent the last 34 years nurturing new Christians, first among Kenyan students, then among the Maasai of East Africa’s wilderness, before six years among young people in Europe. Back in Africa, her passion remains the development of simple, authentic faith in lives around her. She has been part of the 24-7 Prayer family for over 16 years.