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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