I was wandering through a Christian bookstore today; there are a lot of books on prayer. There are a lot of forms of prayer, methods of prayer, and aids to prayer. All of these resources, which surely number in the hundred thousands, aim at one goal-- to get us to actually communicate with God.
Communicating with God must be very difficult if we need all that help. But why? Why do I struggle? Why do my friends struggle? Is this God's work? Is He jamming the signal?
The whole thing reminded me of my friend, Jessie. She has a really hard time with prayer. She's a lawyer, and as logical as any lawyer. She would say things like "I go to pray and nothing happens" or "How do I know if I'm praying?"
I didn't have an answer at the time, but I believe I may have one now. I believe that most of us go to prayer waiting for something supernatural. We are waiting for something very different. When all seems normal, and even a little boring, we get discouraged and then make up any excuse not to pray.
But maybe we struggle with prayer not because its supernatural, but because it is very natural-- so natural in fact that it is easily explained away! If Thomas Merton is right, and God really is "nearer to us than we are to ourselves" then maybe the faith challenge is a different sort. God's presence in our lives came before our awareness of Him. Because of this, and how close He is to us, its hard to believe we do not simply talk to ourselves and listen to nothing at all!
I do not mean to say that prayer is not mystical. What I am saying is that it is also bodily. As much as it is profound, it is common. If we keep waiting for the miraculous and only the miraculous, we will miss a lifetime of walking with God. God has put within each of us a capacity to communicate with Him. We just have to believe that it's there-- closer and deeper than we ever thought-- and have the courage to seek Him with all our hearts.
"Everything is obvious. In order to reach the obvious, I must struggle." Henri Nouwen
2 comments:
I like what you say about prayer being natural instead of supernatural. Practicing the spiritual disciplines has made me realize that prayer is the natural outlet for daily trials when we live out of redemption instead of fallenness. But it takes a lot of life experience and a willingness to be honest with yourself to resolve so many distractions into a means of communicating with God. Thanks for posting, Jon.
When is the last time you were somewhere where everyone around you was silent?
Think about the seven minute lull ... how eager we are to make conversation just so we're not sitting in silence. I believe this is carried into our prayer life as well. Life surrounds us with constant noise... We feel that we need to keep a conversation with God. Why is it so hard for us to sit and just listen?
Thanks for the post Jon. It just reminds me again... that I need to get silent and listen.
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