Medicine of Prayer

A Journey of Faith to Live a Life of Purpose
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9831524-1-5
Verlag: Litefoot Enterprises, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 184 Seiten

Nothing is impossible with the Medicine of Prayer! Accomplish all you were born to accomplish and begin living the life you were born to live. It is all possible and waiting for you! Litefoot, Native American musician, motivational speaker, feature film actor and entrepreneur takes us on the journey of a life guided by the power of prayer and his walk with God, the Creator. For Litefoot, the Medicine of Prayer has been the source he has drawn from to overcome his challenges and find success in life. Whether you are going through a difficult time or wish to soar to new heights of fulfillment, this book will provide bold new thinking, inspiring stories, and practical tools to help you move forward in faith and realize your dreams.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Litefoot

Leseproben

Chapter One

-Walk With The Creator -

“Ask the Creator for what you need and have faith it will come. But faith without work will reap you nothing. Pray and go hard every day!”

Sept. 11, 1981, It was my 13th birthday. In my mother’s tradition, this was a very important time. In her family, which descends from the Chichimeca Indians of Mexico, when a son or daughter reaches the age of thirteen it is a rite of passage into adulthood. My Mom had planned a party for me at the popular local hangout, Mazzio’s Pizza. Those of you from Oklahoma know about Mazzio’s. I was looking forward to being with my friends and having a good time. This was the day that would set me off into my manhood.

The way my younger sister tells the story, my Mom was a little hesitant about what she wanted to write on my birthday cake. Should it be a typical young man theme, like football? Or should she go with her first choice, which was something spiritual? She was worried that it might bother me with all the other kids there. My sister responded as our mother had taught us, you can never go wrong with something you feel spiritually led to do, whether his friends liked it or not.

And so, at this popular pizza parlor, with all my jock 12 and 13 year old friends acting out as boys do, my Mom presents me with a birthday cake with a Bible verse on top: Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans that I have for you. They are plans for good and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope.”

My first reaction was: “Mom…can’t I just have a cake and it not be something profound?” She could see that I wasn’t completely comfortable, but she then said something that settled me. “This is what I claim for you.” I never forgot that. Though I was embarrassed then, I appreciate her now for her courage in being so strong in her faith – it completely shaped me and grew my belief. Mom taught me that my walk in life could only be fulfilled when it is a walk with the Creator as my guide. Although both my parents are strong in their spirit, it was from my mother that I first came to understand the power of The Medicine of Prayer. You could say she was my first spiritual teacher.

Olga O. Pinédo Davis was born in Sacramento, California. Her mother, Paula Pinédo, was a medicine woman born in a village outside the city of Zacatecas in Mexico. My mother tells me how normal and natural it was to find my grandmother praying or talking aloud to get rid of negative energies. How her mother would pin a small medicine pouch to the inside of her blouse everyday as she sent her off to school. This gentle, sweet spirited woman died a week before I was born. My mother was determined to have her spirit carry on in me and so she blessed me by naming me Gary, after my father, and Paul after my grandmother, Paula. And Mom insisted that both names would be spoken, so that I was never just called Gary. To this day, I am Gary Paul, so that my grandmother’s spirit would always be in our awareness.

Mom spoke of spirituality in Christian terms. As with the history of many of our people, she was the product of a Catholic upbringing originally put upon the Chichimeca people by the Spaniards. As she grew older she had questions and broke from that strict Catholic doctrine and began to look toward Christianity in a non-denominational fashion. In no way was I taught to, nor do I discount the teachings of Christianity, but I believe the Creator has given us unique ways to express ourselves spiritually. By the time I became old enough to have my understanding of things, I chose to develop and practice my faith in the Creator by taking part in the traditional ways of my ancestors.

My family is a prime example of the result of colonization and the oppression that comes with it: loss of culture and the ongoing struggle to reclaim that culture; of being put upon as a people, by force, to implement the imposing group’s culture over your own, whether you like it or not, in the pursuit of whatever agenda the imposing party has. The after effects of that last from generation to generation. You begin to understand how religion is used to control people. For instance, it is a Christian teaching that when two or more are gathered in the name of God, so too is the presence of God. But, nowhere does it say in the Bible, you have to go to church. The Bible says you should congregate with those who believe as you do. The structures of religion that have been created by men have been used so often, and specifically in the history of the Native people in North America, as a means of control and oppression. That is not what I think the Creator wants as the end result of our relationship with him – to feel oppressed, controlled or that there is only one set way to develop your spiritual relationship with Grandfather.

There were times when my mother and I would have deep conversations about prayer and referring to God as the “Creator”; it was clear to me that the Creator has many, many names, in many tongues. I sometimes call him Grandfather, as he is our oldest relative and teacher -- He knows all. Our people have many names for Him, but no matter what name we call Him, it’s all the same. There is only one God.

There are numerous references in the Bible and many theological books that we should find freedom through our relationship with the Creator - not chains and things that bind us. We should find the loosing of all things that restrict or control us. If you do it the other way, where people feel oppressed, you stifle the growth of someone’s spiritual life and ultimately achieve a negative end result, even though your intentions were good. We should find our place within the infinite and not in the finite bounds of a person. It didn’t make sense to me to take refuge in the religion of men, who have a set and very defined beginning and end. But rather, to put the Creator first, which has no beginning or end. The more we focus on our relationship with the Creator and the pureness of that direct relationship, the more we understand, on a continuous basis, a pureness and a power as we’ve never known it. You begin to truly understand that the water that flows from the river that is the Creator is the sweetest thing you’ve ever tasted. This is the sweetness of The Medicine of Prayer.

I believe my mother got me into Christian schools in order to know the teachings of Christianity and to build an understanding of spirituality. Later, I would then take those understandings and worship in a way that was more in keeping with who I am as a Native person. When I took those understandings and went to our Cherokee Stomp Dances, the Sweat Lodge, the Sun Dance, Longhouse or Hogan or been blessed to be part of any ceremony, I’ve been able to pray and appreciate the magnificence of the Creator by understanding that long before me the Creator gave all people a way to worship that was meaningful to them. But I would never say one was better than the other, because they are all of the Creator. Every way the Creator has given us is a vessel to utilize to communicate with the Creator. They are all the best, because they come from the Creator. My studies of the Bible weren’t to discount it, but to have an interpretation of it based on the experiences of my life; to find the truth in it and ultimately see the similarities we all share as children of the Creator, rather than the differences.

And so, my earliest understanding of prayer was from a Christian perspective and the Bible. Tied to that was always my mother, who encouraged me to understand how powerful prayer is and how ready and willing the Creator is to listen and help us.

There is a vivid memory I have of a warm, sunny Oklahoma day. I was about ten years old and my mother decided our lunch would be a picnic in the backyard. She brought out the blanket and food. It was just the two of us. That day, she helped me understand what communicating with the Creator was about. She spoke about how there’s always more strength in prayer when people are gathered together and focused on the intention of communicating with the Creator. She told me that I always had the opportunity to speak with the Creator and let Grandfather know what was on my heart. These are the words as I remember them:

“We need to talk to the Creator in the way we would talk to a confidante, a friend or family member. That can be done verbally or without saying a word. It is an expression of your heart. The Creator knows what your intentions are and what your meaning is. In prayer, we come from the most sincere place.”

She also encouraged me to be more in a constant state of prayer. This is what we should always be doing rather than only praying on a certain day or a certain time of day. She would say, “There is never a time when the Creator is too busy to hear what you have to say.”

Praying is everything you do… it’s how you eat your food, put on your clothes, it’s how you speak… it’s how you hold yourself as you walk in your journey of this life. Prayer is how we look at life; how we hold ourselves in a constant awareness of our connection with the Creator. Being able to stay in your spirit from moment to moment and not get caught up in everything around you, to stay focused, or appreciate all that you’ve been given, are all prayers.

Although these teachings from my mother have guided me throughout life, it wasn’t that, as a kid growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma I was advertising my relationship with the Creator. Not many kids do. Obviously at that age, discussions of faith and religion weren’t...