Praying???

Rev. Tom Dolph

When I was in high school I had a friend who never said Amen at the end of prayers. Her reasoning was that if she never said amen then her prayer would never be over and she would always be connected to God. She was, of course, a bit misguided but at the same time quite prophetic. There is something about prayer that connects us to God in ways that other things cannot, especially when we see prayer as a discipline and not just another golden opportunity to whine. I find my own prayer life full of that very same paradox, misguided but powerful.

Again, when I was in high school, I developed a reputation for being a good pray-er. At first I thought it was because my speech was so much more elegant and intelligent than that of my peers, then reality poked its ugly head in. The truth was, people liked my prayers because they seemed to resonate with what they were feeling. My words quite often gave expression to feelings others were having but didn’t know how to relate to God. My recitation of their feelings allowed them to simply be in the presence of God, not having to stumble over what words to use. “When you don’t have to think all the time about what words you are going to say next, you are free to fully enter in the act of praying.” (Mudhouse, 60) How often do we fall into the trap of believing that WHAT we say in prayer is more important than acknowledging that we are, in fact, actually spending time with God? I find my own prayer life paradoxically misguided but powerful.

It is a difficult thing to notice the subtle changes in us when we shift from seeing prayer as the words we say to God to prayer being about the time we spend with God. In some way it’s the difference between the phrases “the magic of prayer” and the “power of prayer.” When we see prayer as words and incantations we offer to entice God to give us what we want, prayer seems all too magical, and misguided. The power of prayer is different; it is not about what God can do for us but what can happen to us through the discipline of spending time with God. The truth is the biggest thing that changes when we encounter the power of prayer is ourselves. I find my own prayer life full of a seemingly inescapable paradox, my prayer time is misguided but powerful.

Let us pray …

Amen?