I have a problem. I think prayer (at lease the way I know how to do it) is contrived.
That probably means I'm doing it wrong. Is that possible? I've sat through 152 teachings on prayer. (Yes, I've counted. It's 152!) But somehow I still don't get it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Lately, I've been praying a really profound prayer. It goes something like, "Help." If I feel really spiritual, I'll pray, "Please help." Works great.
Yeah, I like that.
Sometimes, when I can't think of what to pray, which is usually, I'll start out with, "Hi". Then I wait and listen. It's usually quiet, so I'll follow up with, "How's it going?"
Is that weird?
Not at all. What does he say to "How's it going"?
Yah, good question, cherie sr.
He doesn't say much when I ask Him how it's going. Or maybe He does, but I'm not hearing Him. It's hard to know for sure. I don't know if He talks to me like that, though. Although, it would be cool. I think He talks to me more through life situations. Sometimes I don't know if He's really talking at all. Sometimes I worry about forcing a spiritual interpretation on something that isn't. But then I worry God isn't speaking to me period.
I think I heard Him once, though. It was hard to deny.
That's more about listening though. I was talking about praying. I still don't get it, I don't think.
Prayer is a mystery. I don't think we're supposed to "get" it or learn to "do" it the way we learn to do long division or play the piano. I think it's an organic thing, like being thirst. You don't learn to do thirsty. You just are.
So many instinctive things we think, feel, and experience are prayer. Real, legitimate, transforming prayer. It's a safe bet that you "pray without ceasing" without realizing it.
Ah ha. I was thinking about "praying without ceasing".
I used to think that admonition didn't make any sense because a prayer was something that began, "Dear Lord Jesus," and always ended, "In Jesus' name, amen." How do you do that all day? But I'm not sure anymore that defines prayer.
I also agree with the instinctive/organic part about prayer. Sometimes I wonder if the 152 teachings I've had on prayer aren't in fact somehow destructive. Reducing prayer to something you can teach, like, as you say, piano or long division may perhaps undermine the real truth and power of it.
You don't teach people how to be friends. You can teach manners, and social norms, but you can't teach two people how to be friends. It seems weird we have to learn how to talk to God.
Still, somehow, I'm bad at it (prayer) and part of me worries that all this theorizing about the nature of prayer provides me with a cope out for not doing the "Dear Lord Jesus" prayers that I probably should be doing too.
Post a Comment