I Don't Know How to Pray

I was raised in Christian traditions that value prayer--sort of. After all, who would ever say they DO NOT value prayer? We all say we do. But most of us are lying. Not that lying in this instance is an entirely bad thing. It is a hopeful lie we tell ourselves. "I believe in prayer." We want it to be true, we want our lives to bear out that truth. Somewhere deep in our hearts, Jesus followers today are crying out with the disciples of yesterday, "Lord, teach us to pray."

I've long been of the opinion that the best way to school oneself in prayer is by actually praying. After all, baseball players learn to hit fastballs and curveballs and sliders by, well, trying to hit them. Studying pitches doesn't get you very far; you've got to step up to the plate. Now I enjoy the occasional book on prayer. Richard Foster's book is a great one, off the top of my head. But I find that reading about prayer oftentimes distracts me from the actual subject of study. I end up with my nose in a book more than my knees on the ground.

Besides that, the usual prayers I was brought up with were of the generic "Lord forgive me this and give me that" variety, with a healthy dash of "heal or comfort or protect so and so." And the focus of prayer was awfully heavy on saying stuff. We said it extemporaneously, "led by the Spirit," and did not recite things from rote memory like those Episcopalians who don't know how to pray without their book. We (Methodists and Baptists in my past) felt we had prayer down. I now confess we don't. And I don't.

For one, most of us evangelical Protestants don't have a real sense of the depth of prayer. Once we learn to stand in the kiddie pool, we tend to stay there for the rest of our lives. Second, we don't know how to shut up. "Be still and know that I am God" is a verse we stitch on stuff but don't dwell upon and let live within us. Finally, we tend to reject the accumulated wisdom of the Great Tradition before us, that great cloud of witnesses with dirty knees. What they learned as a habit, we learn as a piece of trivia. Pastors are especially bad at this: we collect more quotes about prayer than actual prayers. But there are a few of us, even Baptists, who are turning back to those great books of prayer alongside those about prayer (thank you, Episcopalians).

Here's a quote that recently settled the matter for me: I don't how to pray. Not like I want to. Not like I should. It comes from the Desert Fathers, and it reminds me of C. S. Lewis.

The brethren also asked Abba Agathon "Amongst all good works, which is the virtue which requires the greatest effort?" He answered "Forgive me, but I think there is no labour greater than that of prayer to God. For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons, want to prevent him. For they know that it is only by turning him from prayer that they can hinder his journey. What ever good work a man undertakes, if he perseveres in it, he will attain rest. But prayer is warfare to the last breath.

Truly Amazing

I found a link to this over at Weird Universe. In an election year, it's good to remember who all gets to vote... just about everybody. Scary.

What Did You Expect?

What should you expect from "The Reluctant Blogger?" A post every day? every week? every month? No. I'm willing to bet few people navigate this way anymore.

I made a pact with myself to "fast" from blogging for a while because at the time it was taking away time from family and church. I'm going to tread lightly back into this blog business in the hope that I can work all these things out in a new way. Because I also value the connections that can be created through blogging. We'll see.

Genius

The Texas Lottery and the Poor

Let's just be glad this is KHOU talking about the issue and not the prophet Amos.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/houstonmetro/stories/khou080219_ac_lotterystudy.aa83524.html

Hmmmm...

I honestly don't know much about Frank Schaeffer. But his latest blog entry tugs at me. "Why I'm Pro-Life and Pro-Obama." Hmmmm. 4 years ago, I doubt many people would have even read it.

"Regardless of the official position of the Supreme Court on abortion, a country in which all Americans are offered some sort of dignity and hopeful future would be a place conducive to the kind of optimism each of us must hold in our hearts if we are to welcome children into this world. But if our highest aspiration is to be a consumer with no thought or care for our neighbor, we will remain a culture in which abortion is not only inevitable but logical."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/why-im-prolife-and-pro_b_85636.html

Love of God, Love of Neighbor

I'm ashamed to admit this is new news to me. But then again, its not the sort of thing that makes news, sells news, and alarms consumers to always be checking the news. It should make headlines, but we have one war to justify and another coming war to sell.

In October of this year, 138 Muslim clerics and scholars representing the three major branches of Islam - Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi - published a letter to the Christian world. It was a proverbial olive branch extended in the hope, I think a sincere hope, that Muslims and Christians together can realize a great measure of peace among one another. And here is the truly remarkable thing: these Muslims have proposed that Muslims and Christians can realize this peace by anchoring themselves more fully in the core of their respective faith traditions.

Usually, I ignore statements like this because they represent a few select scholars (almost always the most Westernized, liberalized Muslims, peace be upon them) who don't and won't claim to stand in the center of their tradition. This statement, however, claims to come from the heart of Islam, including three diverse strands of the tradition, representing the most common beliefs of the majority of Muslims. And these voices are encouraging Christians to find "a common word" with Muslims centered around the love of God and the love of neighbor, two central tenets of each faith.

Since that time, a broad range of mostly American Christians from Rick Warren to Diana Eck have signed onto a reply letter to the Muslim world. Many bloggers have denounced this reply letter (as if they were asked to approve) as not representing the common belief of Christians and really being some kind of lovey-dovey liberal ecumenical hogwash attempt to make Islam look nicer than it has been. As far as representing common belief of Christians... I've been a Baptist too long. I've almost given up on the existence of common belief. But surely we all can agree on the two greatest commandments? Can't we? As far as making religions look nicer than they really are, Christians are already quite experienced at ignoring our own sins towards our non-Christian neighbors, especially Muslims.

"Whoever is not against you is for you." Jesus gave his disciples these words just before, in Luke's gospel, he set his face resolutely to go to Jerusalem. Words worth pondering in a world in need of peace.

"Who is my neighbor?" (Who does the second greatest commandment apply to?) We know the answer. We're just afraid to speak it.