Eat This Book :: Prayer

"Spiritual reading requires a disciplined attention to exactly the way the text is written [Reading]; it requires a meditative and receptive entering into the world of the text [Meditation]; and it requires a response [Prayer]." p. 103

Well, I'm back to the book I've been reading for a couple of weeks.  The back half of the week last week was a little crazy.  My message yesterday was about having spiritual conversations with your kids.  It was one of the most awkward days I've had as a communicator.  Since I am also the media/graphics guy at the church, I was in a bit of a quandary when one of our projectors lost all the red in the projection, and in attempting to find a solution, I misdirected the monitors and lost some of my color calibrations.  I know this doesn't mean that much to you, but it got me all out of sorts.  I needed God to step in and overtake me.  Even though this should always be the case, it was more evident yesterday.  I think He did.

Today, I moved from meditation to prayer as I began reflecting on the third of four movements in lectio divina.  I must say that this is my most difficult of the four movements.  I am not good at this part and I think it's because I have often thought of it wrongly in my life.  I've always had a certain cynicism about the prayers that I hear most often in churches and in the circles I grew up in.  I attended prayer meetings.  I even was praying around our flag pole in high school before "see you at the pole" ever existed.  I was part of a group of youth that prayed together every Thursday morning at 6am.  I have prayed, and I have discovered something along the way.  Honesty.

For most prayers that I listen to, it seems as though the person praying suddenly goes into this nice "prayer language."  They are really sweet and nice.  I once had a fellow-staff member pray in an almost whisper-voice, totally different than her normal voice.  I always wondered if she was afraid God's ears would hurt if she spoke in normal vocal tones.  My intent is not to criticize people's conversation with God, but to point out that often we think we have to be nice and speak to God nicely when we pray.  The Bible paints a very different picture of prayer.

The book of Psalms is like our prayer-text within our Story.  Throughout the pages of the Psalms, we discover a prayer-anarchy of sorts.  The writers of this book do not pray in nice, neat language.  They are angry, jealous, bitter, doubtful and resentful toward God.  They are honest.  They also don't seem to put down these feelings when they pray.

Prayer is the language that we use to relate to God.  He has spoken to us in the pages of the Bible and prayer is our end of the dialogue.  "Prayer detached from Scripture, from listening to God, disconnected from God's words to us, short-circuits the relational language that is prayer" (p. 104).  I used to understand this very well.  I understand that God's Word and my words back to Him work together, however, I often forget this and I will go weeks praying and talking to God without reading my Bible in conjunction.  I look back and realize that I haven't prayed, but merely lectured God.  I simply gave God a speech.

"In prayer we are most ourselves; it is the one act in which we can, must, be totally ourselves.  But it is also the act in which we move beyond ourselves.  In that 'move beyond' we come to be formed and defined not by the sum total of our experiences but by the Father, Son and Spirit to whom and by whom we pray." p. 107

When we pray, in conjunction with our consumption of the Story, we don't just read so we can know about God.  Prayer allows for God's continued revelation in us as we participate in it.

"The story of the manna gathered and set aside by the Hebrews is deeply significant.  It so happened that the manna rotted when it was kept.  And perhaps this means that all spiritual reading which is not consumed - by prayer and works - ends by causing a rotting inside us.  You die with a head full of fine sayings and a perfectly empty heart." - Julian Green in his book Diaries.

Prayer is a conversation with God - both talking and listening.  In our culture, it is easy to forget that it's also listening.