Prayer and Songwriting

I am teaching this week at another church in town, they are doing a series on Prayer and the Arts and I'm talking about songwriting.

I'm going to teach 2 creative writing projects that I utilize both in prayer and in songwriting. To do this I've been playing around with a new presentation software called Prezi. I'm not much of a visual artist so I haven't really tapped into it's potential, but I do like the way I can zoom into the clustering technique to show details and then zoom out again to show the whole thing. Here's the presentation (just click on the triangle to advance the slides, if the presentation doesn't seem to load, then reload the page or follow the hyperlink above, sometimes I've had problems!)

Exploring the Lord's Prayer on Prezi

In the process of working on the presentation I interacted with each line of the Lord's Prayer (or Model Prayer as the church where I'm teaching calls it) by rewriting them using Synonymous, Antithetical and Synthetic Paralellisms ~ watch the presentation to find out what they are :)

Here's my result

Our Father in Heaven

• Dad of us all, who covers us all
• We are not orphans, living life unobserved
• We are one family, with God watching us all

Hallowed be Thy Name

• Your name is a beautiful mystery
• No other person blazes as brightly as You
• We see Your beauty and declare it aloud

Your kingdom come

• Invade our lives with Your rule
• May our kingdoms diminish
• With 'self' on the throne, our kingdoms will crumble

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

• Help us be as obedient as the angels
• Let earthly selfishness be replaced by heavenly obedience
• Help us follow You, for You see the bigger picture

Give us this day our daily bread

• Nourish and sustain us
• Don't let us consume more than we need for today
• Help us to see the food You place before us

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

• May our "I forgive yous" be an echo of Yours
• Do not hold grievances against us as we so often do to others
• Forgiveness delated and denied corrodes the soul

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

• If our path cannot be easy, guide as safely through difficulty
• We can find our own way into trouble and get in over our heads - help us!
• Let us trust You to chart the course of our lives

For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen

• You have the Authority, the ABility and the Beauty, always
• We are obedient servants, singing Your praises for eternity
• It's all about You, all You, Always You

After sitting with each line individually, I then took one of each version and made my own prayer.

We are one family, with God watchin us all
We see Your beauty and declare it aloud!
May our kingdoms diminish -
Let earthly sefishness be replace by heavenly obedience.
Help us to see the food You place before us -
And to remember that forgiveness delayed and denied corrodes the soul.
If our path cannot be easy, guide as safely through difficulty
For life is about You
All You
Always You
Amen

It was an interesting exercise to do as it forced me to think about what each line in the prayer means for me rather than just reciting it rote. I was also surprised by what came up for me when I utilized the Clustering Technique that is demonstrated in the presentation.
Enjoy :)