Christian Chapter Chat

4.03.2006

An Instructive Moment About Prayer

I LOVED the line in the meditation part of this chapter that said,

"The disciples were just children, really...Who other than children would so recklessly abandon the responsibilities of adult life for such a swashbuckling promise of adventure?"

I remember when I read the New Testament the second time through I thought to myself, "These disciples...they are either the most faithfilled men or they are the biggest bunch of babies - and I'm not sure which!" Men who would leave everything behind seems at first glance to be a wonderful trait because you assume they are doing it for the same reason we would do it - because of our love of Jesus Christ. But think about it - these men didn't know Jesus was the son of God at that point. They saw one full net and said, "Let's pack our bags and go." If that happened to any of us in real life today all our friends and families would be calling up mental hospitals and asking if they could put a 48-hour psychiatric hold on us - and they'd be right to!

Of course, looking from our viewpoint today, we think they are wonderful men for having dropped their nets and followed Jesus - and we'd be right there, too, but it does show us that their thought process towards all the responsibilities of their lives left a bit to be desired. They really were much like children. (Imagine my surprise to see men who were acting like children...hehehe.)

Isn't it amazing to think, though, that they were the first ones to really understand how to pray? Surely man had cried out to God through all the ages but to actually get instruction on how to pray? What a wonderful thing to learn! I think for most Christians we discount this and assume that everyone knows how to pray and that is just simply not true. For me, I found it to be a lot like driving a car. I had watched others do it and I had blindly taken a stab at it my whole life, but did I really understand what I was doing or why I was doing it? Nope...because I'd never been behind the wheel with an instructor before. I was praying like a kid in the country drives...

Do I think some people can instinctively know how to pray? Sure - I just wasn't one of them. All I ever did was ask for things. I (as Donald Miller pointed out in "Blue Like Jazz") was standing at a casino throwing coins into the slot machine and pulling the handle. If I didn't like the answer I got, I simply pulled the handle again.

I still have trouble praying "correctly." I tend to do it in a hurry and skip right through the "how great thou art" part and get right down to business, but I'm making progress. I've spent most of this year (and especially Lent) really examining how I pray and trying to modify it in a way that makes both God and I partners in instead of him being the headmaster and I being the greedy orphan. "Please sir, may I 'ave some mo'?"

And this is where the prayer of this chapter seemed to ring home with me as well.

"Deliver me from my childish Christmas list of material prayers. Give me instead what I need this day to sustain my life: both the food I need for my body and the forgiveness I so desperately need for my soul."

It was a good chapter for me, but I think it could have been so much more. This chapter almost seemed to be an afterthought for Gire - one more little thing to fill a couple of pages and that makes me sad. Prayer is our main way of establishing and maintaining our relationship with God and I think a chapter on it warranted more than just 4-1/2 pages.

3 Comments:

  • Excellent points. (I like the slot machine analogy) I have thought a lot about prayer in terms of a vending machine One package says good health, another says a better job...

    By Blogger Claire Joy, at 7:54 AM  

  • Jules, I think your prayers are beautiful! However, I do understand how we can get in the mode of "slot machine" asking. It always seems to be when we are focused more on ourselves than on what Christ desires for us. '

    By Blogger Pilot Mom, at 9:51 AM  

  • yes, what a privilege to be taught from the Master, right?

    By Blogger dangermama, at 3:07 PM  

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