Saturday, September 9, 2017

"Why Pray?"

             This Sunday, September 10th, we start a new four-week focus, entitled:  “Spirituality for Busy People.”  We begin this Sunday at a very basic level by reflecting on prayer. 

“What is prayer, exactly?”  Perhaps the most straightforward definition of prayer is that it is communication with the Divine.  This communication may be verbal, such as “The Lord’s Prayer” or when we lift up a prayer of petition for a friend who is very sick.  Of course, true communication should always be at least two-way.  It should never be one-way, in which only one party speaks and the other only listens.  This is certainly true in communication with the Divine.  Sometimes the Divine speaks to us through verbal communication, as when God spoke to the prophet Elijah in a “still, small voice” (see 1 Kings 19:  11-15).

While we normally think of communication as exchanging words with one another, not all communication is verbal.  Sometimes we communicate with our eyes or a gesture or through our body language.  Similarly, communication with the Divine need not always be verbal.  For instance, sometimes I feel God communicating with me through nature.  I experience God’s Presence in a brilliant early morning sunrise, in the majesty of a grand old oak tree, in the vivid colors of different fish swimming around a coral reef, when gazing up at the starry heavens on a clear evening, and in the smile of a newborn infant.  In all of these ways and many more, I experience the Divine communicating with me without using words.  Prayer, then, is communication with the Divine, both verbally and non-verbally.

Suppose that I have a friend who has been diagnosed with a very serious, perhaps even terminal, illness.  I visit my friend in the hospital.  We sit and talk, and my friend shares his fears of an uncertain prognosis with me.  When it is time to end our visit I stand, grasp his hand, and say:  “I will be praying for you in the days to come.”  My friend thanks me, as I leave his hospital room.  But, what does it mean to pray for someone who is sick?

As Christians, we believe in a God who loves us more profoundly than we can ever understand.  We believe in a God who seeks the very best for us.  And, we believe that God is all powerful and ultimately in control.  Given this understanding of who God is, doesn’t my promise to pray for my friend appear a bit superfluous?  Afterall, if God is all powerful and if God loves us so deeply, then doesn’t it make sense to assume that God already has my friend’s best interests at heart and that God is already caring for my friend?  In some respects, we might assume that God knows better how to care for my friend than I do.  So, why should I even pray for my friend, if we assume that God is already loving and caring for my friend?  It’s not as though we have to nag God to care for those whom we love.  God already loves our loved ones more than we do.  So, why pray at all?

            The 1993 film, Shadowlands is the story of C. S. Lewis, who was an Oxford University professor, author of the children’s fantasy book series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and a widely respected religious thinker.  The film explores Lewis’ relationship with his wife, Joy, and how her struggle and death from cancer challenged his faith.  In one scene from the film, C. S. Lewis’ friend remarks, “I know how hard you’ve been praying; and now God is answering your prayers.”

Lewis replies to his friend, saying:  “That’s not why I pray, Harry. I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.”[i]

It seems to me that this brief scrap of dialogue captures the essence of why we pray from a Christian perspective.  It’s not that we pray in order to change God; it’s not that we are trying to persuade—or, nag—God to do something.  No.  We pray to change ourselves.  We pray in order to align our will with God’s will.  To draw closer to the Divine by becoming one with the Divine through aligning our will and our intentions and our desires with God’s Will.

If you live in the Lincoln, Nebraska area and do not have a place of worship, then I invite you to come and join us this Sunday, September 10th, as we reflect on the role of prayer, and begin an examination of a “Spirituality for Busy People.”  Christ United Methodist Church is located at 4530 A Street in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Our two traditional Worship Services are at 8:30 and 11:00 on Sunday morning. 

Come and join us.  Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.




[i] Shadowlands (1993). Directed by Richard Attenborough; produced by Richard Attenborough and Brian Eastman; Screenplay by William Nicolson, based upon his book.

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